Honored with Major League Baseball’s top award for character, community involvement, and philanthropy, Salvador Perez wanted other major leaguers to understand that even a small amount of time dedicated to charity can make a big difference.
“I know sometimes we’re tired and we like to enjoy the off day at home,” the Kansas City catcher said on Monday after receiving the Roberto Clemente Award.
“I get it. But just for two or three hours one day every month, just one day out of 30 days, 31 days, just one day go have fun, go make some kid happy. They’re never, never going to forget that.”
A nine-time All-Star and the 2015 World Series MVP, the 34-year-old Perez received the award before Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
“The good works that this man does are really unbelievable,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated.
Perez and his family give bags of food and kitchen supplies to 2,000 homes each offseason in the poorest areas of his hometown, Valencia, Venezuela, helping more than 10,000 families over the last ten years. He also runs a youth baseball league there, providing equipment for the kids and financial help for their families.
“When I was growing up it was hard to buy supplies like bats and baseballs,” he said. “That’s the one thing my mom and I talked about, like we should create a Little League team. We have 220 kids in Venezuela. So we bring everything.
They don’t have to pay for anything. So I think that’s the one really near to my heart. I know how hard it is to get things like that in Venezuela.”
Perez has paid for many surgeries for children with cleft lips, given over 1,000 toys to children’s hospitals, and supported police officers. He frequently travels to Colombia to help the Carlos Fortuna Foundation assist adults in becoming better parents, and he even crossed the border on foot when strict travel rules were in place during the COVID-19 shutdown.
In the United States, Perez has teamed up with organizations working to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and he collaborates with Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer, which is based in Kansas.
Perez made a $1 million donation to the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy, one of MLB’s 11 youth academies, which is the largest donation the academy has ever received.
Roberto Clemente, a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
This season, Perez batted .271 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs in 158 games for the Royals, who reached the playoffs for the first time since winning their second World Series title in 2015. He is a five-time Gold Glove winner and has a career batting average of .267 over 1,552 games, all played with the Royals since he made his big league debut in 2011.
He plans to keep the award next to his bed.
“After winning a World Series, this is the second-best award I ever got,” Perez said. “I got some Gold Gloves, Silver Slugger, World Series MVP, but this means a lot to me.”
