Major League Baseball announced the 2021 nominees for the Roberto Clemente award on Monday afternoon, and the representative for the New York Mets this season is unsurprisingly first baseman Pete Alonso. 

The Roberto Clemente award is presented annually to the player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and contributions both on and off the field.

If this award isn’t Pete Alonso in a nutshell, then I don’t know what is. The humble slugger recently told Anthony Dicomo of MLB.com that it is truly an honor to be nominated for one of the game’s most prestigious awards.

“I’m really thankful for the recognition, but I’m just trying to do good in the community. There’s a lot of things that I want to be able to tackle and improve upon in the community. I just want to continue to bring positivity and whatever positive change needs to happen,” Alonso said.

Back in 2019, Alonso donated 10% of his $1 million Home Run Derby winnings to the Wounded Warrior Project and the Tunnel to Towers Fund. Alonso and his fiancé, Haley, were then inspired to start up their “Homers for Heroes” foundation.

He has also done his part to give back around September 11th each of the past three seasons. In 2019, he designed custom cleats which he donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. This past week he met with victim Paul Veneto pregame at Citi Field.

He also released an NFT for his 100th career home run this past week, and a portion of the proceeds when towards the 9/11 Memorial Never Forget fund.

There are some athletes that simply just get it, and Pete Alonso has shown he is certainly one of them. While speaking with Dicomo on how much of an honor the nomination is, Alonso touched on Clemente being not just a great ballplayer but also an incredible individual off the field.

“He was a really special player and did a ton of amazing things between the lines. It’s really special to be considered to win that award, because I think that’s an incredible thing, people noticing the hard work I do off the field. It really means a lot that I’m nominated,” Alonso said.

Some of the other nominees for the 2021 season include Max Scherzer, Miguel Rojas, Joey Votto, Ian Desmond, Nelson Cruz, Paul Goldschmidt, Will Smith, Bo Bichette, Mike Trout, and Trey Mancini amongst others.

Fan voting is open until the end of the regular season. The winner of the fan vote will receive one vote among a panel of individuals who will select the winner.

The last Met to receive the award was outfielder Curtis Granderson in 2016. The other three Mets players who have taken home the award are first baseman Carlos Delgado (2006), lefty Al Leiter (2000), and catcher Gary Carter (1989).

I’m sure this is the first of many nominations for Pete Alonso for this prestigious award. You can cast your vote for him here.