A wonderful honor for an outstanding young man.
Justin Upton named D-backs' nominee for 2010 Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet | dbacks.com: Official Info
Major League Baseball and Chevrolet, the official vehicle of Major League Baseball, today announced that Justin Upton was named the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2010 nominee for the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet. Upton is one of the 30 Club nominees who are finalists for the national award, which is given annually to the Major League Baseball player who combines a dedication to giving back to the community with outstanding skills on the baseball field. Tomorrow will mark the ninth annual Roberto Clemente Day, which was established by Major League Baseball to honor Clemente's legacy and to officially recognize local Club nominees of the Roberto Clemente Award presented by Chevrolet.In the past year, Upton and the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation donated $20,000 to the Heart of Champion Foundation to assist in developing character-education programs at five Phoenix-area schools. He also worked alongside Muhammad Ali to raise $50,000 for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Upton also became involved with Best Buddies of Arizona during the 2010 season to bring awareness to the program that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He has also made personal appearances for St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix Youth at Risk and Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona.
"It's an honor to be nominated for this award because it is named after Roberto Clemente, who dedicated so much of his time to the community while maintaining a Hall of Fame career on the field," Upton said. "I know how important it is to interact with the local community after only playing a few years in the Major Leagues. I hope to live up to the standards Clemente set for all of us to live up to."
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UPTON IS PART OF THE PROBLEM
He was Hinch’s boy. He is not smart enough to play the outfield and has less talent than Parra as a fielder.
He shows signs of laziness and this infects a club house especially when he gets an UPTOWN for being a below average player.
Sorry, I am not a fan, and we have not had a winner here since Colangelo sold the team.
by Fred Ricardo on Sep 8, 2010 1:48 PM MST reply actions
Not sure I agree
on all counts – I think Justin does well in the club house from what I’ve seen and all reports are he works hard.
His defense has improved as he’s got more experience – still very young – and we’ll see if his approach gets better with more time as well.
I’m not a huge fan but I’m not down on him either.
Parra is a nice defender but ideally a 4th outfielder in my opinion.
Will be interesting to see how Brandon Allen does this month. Defensively, he’s already looking better than you would expect for a recently converted 1st baseman.
I am not sold on Montero as the long term option catching – that’s another story
Raising Arizona Sports at SB Nation Arizona twitter: @sethpo
by Seth Pollack on Sep 8, 2010 7:24 PM MST up reply actions
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