Major League Baseball announced today that outfielder Kyle Tucker was named the Houston Astros 2024 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One, baseball¡¯s most prestigious individual honor for Major Leaguers.

The Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One is the annual recognition of a Major League player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.

As part of the annual program, each MLB Club nominates one player to be considered for the league-wide Award in tribute to Clemente¡¯s achievements and character.

Tucker started his foundation, the Kyle Tucker Foundation, in early 2022, with the mission to bring awareness to nonprofit hospice care centers and help support them in their quest to bring more affordable and compassionate care to those requiring hospice care. Kyle¡¯s dedication to this cause is personal, as his grandfather passed away under hospice care in 2021. Through this experience, Kyle found a passion to support and raise awareness for hospice care and the support of families during end-of-life care for their loved ones.

The Kyle Tucker Foundation acknowledges the hard work of hospice workers, donates to hospice facilities and more in his adopted home of Houston, Texas and his hometown of Tampa, Florida. Twice a month a staff member from Houston Hospice is selected as a Kyle Tucker Foundation Hospice Hero. Those individuals receive social media recognition, participation in the annual Kyle Tucker Foundation Suite Day at the ballpark and gifts such as certificates, experiences, merchandise and more from local Houston businesses. Annually, Kyle hosts a Hospice Day at the ballpark for 100 hospice workers and their families. He also hosts Houston Hospice staff and Texas Children¡¯s Hospital staff for Suite Days at the Park, a way to show his appreciation for all they do in the health care world, specifically in hospice and palliative care.

The Tucker Foundation has held an annual Topgolf fundraising event in Tampa, along with hosting meet and greets at hospice centers in Florida.

Kyle also has some unique partnerships with local businesses in Houston that support his foundation. In 2024, his foundation partnered with local Houston brewery Holler Brewing, creating a special King Tuck Kolsch and with each can purchased, the foundation receives a portion of the proceeds. In 2023 and 2024, the Kyle Tucker Foundation partnered with X Label Apparel, a local Houston boutique on a ¡°King Tuck¡± t-shirt which is sold throughout the season and the foundation receives a portion of each sale of the shirt. Each year during X Label Apparel¡¯s anniversary sale in August, 10 percent of everything purchased that day goes to the Kyle Tucker Foundation.

Kyle and his foundation joins forces with some of his teammates for the annual ¡°Team Up¡± charity event in Houston. In 2023, the ¡°Team Up¡± event raised over $500,000 for the Houston community, supporting hospice care, animal rescue causes, disaster relief efforts, military charities and childhood cancer charities. The 2024 ¡°Team Up¡± event is set for September 9, 2024 and will be hosted by Tucker, Jose Altuve and Josh Hader.

Tucker¡¯s dedication and support for his community goes beyond his work in his foundation. He has done a lot of work in the Houston community supporting children battling life-threatening illnesses. He has worked with the nonprofit Deck My Room, decorating hospital rooms and meeting pediatric patients at Texas Children¡¯s Hospital. Tucker also hosts children battling cancer and their families from the nonprofit Sunshine Kids at games and spends time with them on the field during batting practice.

In July 2024, Tucker also teamed up with MDMotivator to surprise a very-deserving family in Houston that has had a tough year battling cancer. The family loves the Astros and Kyle is their favorite player, so he surprised them with a trip to the All-Star Game and a check for $50,000, trying to boost their spirits during a tough time.

Sunday, September 15th marks the annual Roberto Clemente Day presented by Capital One, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente¡¯s legacy as a humanitarian and to formally acknowledge Club nominees of the Roberto Clemente Award. As part of the league-wide celebration, the Roberto Clemente Day logo will appear on the bases and official dugout lineup cards and a customized tribute video to Clemente and the 30 Roberto Clemente Award nominees will be shown in all MLB ballparks on Roberto Clemente Day as well as on MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB.tv, Club sites and MLB Social Media Platforms.

The league-wide winner of the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One will be honored at the 2024 World Series following selection by a blue-ribbon panel. This panel includes representatives from the Commissioner¡¯s Office, Capital One, MLB-affiliated networks (MLB Network, FOX Sports, ESPN and TBS), MLB.com, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as Roberto¡¯s children, Enrique, Luis and Roberto Clemente, Jr.

Beginning today, fans can vote for the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Capital One via MLBTogether.com/clementeaward (in both English and Spanish). The site, which will feature bios of each of the nominees, will allow fans to vote until the end of the season on Sunday, September 29th. The winner of the fan vote will count as one vote among those cast by the blue-ribbon panel.

The concept of honoring Major League players for their philanthropic work was created in 1971 as the ¡°Commissioner¡¯s Award.¡± The recognition was renamed to the ¡°Roberto Clemente Award¡± in 1973 as tribute to Clemente following his passing while delivering relief supplies for earthquake victims in Nicaragua on December 31, 1972.