Howard nominated for Clemente Award; vote now

Roberto Clemente won the National League Most Valuable Player Award 50 years ago, he finished his career with 3,000 hits, led Pittsburgh to a pair of World Series titles, earned 15 All-Star selections and was one of the best right fielders in the game’s history.

But as another Pirates outfielder, Andrew McCutchen, said in accepting the Roberto Clemente Award last fall, “You never hear a story about how he played the game. You always hear about how great of a person he is. I feel like what was most important to Clemente was helping others. … That’s how you want to be remembered.”

It is time to decide who will be remembered for the 2016 Roberto Clemente Award. Major League Baseball on Tuesday announced the 30 club nominees for the annual recognition of a player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.

The message is the same, but there is a twist to the award this year. Wednesday is Roberto Clemente Day all around MLB, and on that day, fans can begin participating in the new process of selecting the winner by posting any nominee’s voting hashtags (see below) to Twitter and MLB and club Facebook pages.

Here are the 30 nominees, as presented by their respective clubs. Each nominee’s official hashtag is included for your use.

Angels: Andrew Heaney | #VoteHeaney In addition to his annual mission to help orphans in Honduras, the left-hander gives his time in countless ways and has donated Angels tickets this season to military members and first responders.

Astros: Lance McCullers | #VoteMcCullers The right-hander and his wife Kara are passionate animal rights advocates and have participated in various community projects to save at-risk pets and place adoptions — in addition to many other charitable efforts.

Athletics: Sean Doolittle | #VoteDoolittle Doolittle works to assist U.S. military families, plays a leading role among Major Leaguers as LGBT allies, and along with girlfriend Eireann Dolan hosted 21 Syrian refugee families to an early Thanksgiving dinner at their home in Chicago.

Blue Jays: Kevin Pillar | #VotePillar When he isn’t diving around the outfield for Toronto, Pillar is similarly active in the community through such outreach as the Blue Jays’ Winter Tour clinics or helping kids at schools and at children’s hospitals across Canada.

Braves: Jim Johnson | #VoteJJ Among the reliever’s outreach was the creation of the Birdland Golf Classic, an annual golf tournament that has raised more than $150,000 for the Miracle League of Manasota (Fla.) as part of his efforts to help disabled youth.

Brewers: Ryan Braun | #VoteBraun His $100,000 donation to the Brewers Community Foundation in 2016 is one of many highlights in a diverse community impact, from youth literacy to Habitat for Humanity to the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin.

Cardinals: Adam Wainwright | #VoteWainwright His goal with the Big League Impact foundation is to align with effective charities that are doing the work he believes is the most important to impact people around the world, and visits to such countries as Mexico, Honduras and Haiti have enabled him to help with clean water availability, among other significant outreach.

Cubs: Anthony Rizzo | #VoteRizzo After his own cancer scare, Rizzo and his family became determined to conquer the disease by founding the nonprofit Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation in 2012. Its mission is to raise money for cancer research and to provide support to children and families battling the disease.

D-backs: Paul Goldschmidt, #VoteGoldy Anyone at Phoenix Children’s Hospital will know why the All-Star first baseman is nominated, given the years of humble, away-from-the-cameras hours of involvement by him and wife Amy as registered volunteers, and their creation of Goldy’s Fund 4 Kids along with the D-backs Foundation to support PCH.

Dodgers: Adrian Gonzalez | #VoteAdrian The Adrian and Betsy Gonzalez Foundation empowers underprivileged youth in many ways, from the awarding of college scholarships to pediatric cancer support to ballpark access to low-income families and field renovations in his native Tijuana.

Giants: Jake Peavy | #VotePeavy Whether using his guitar skills to …

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