This story was excerpted from Matthew Leach’s Twins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s more than 2,700 miles from Cabimas, Venezuela, where Pablo López was born, to Minneapolis, where he now makes his baseball home. And in some ways, that may undersell how far López is from his original home.
But as López often says, Minnesota has welcomed him with open arms. And so he makes a point to return the favor. It’s López’s warm embrace of the Twin Cities that is at the heart of his selection as the Twins’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award for a second straight year.
The Roberto Clemente Award is arguably baseball’s single most prestigious award, given annually to “the player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” It requires both baseball excellence and community commitment, and López consistently displays both.
“When you hear the name, you think of both sides, the baseball side and the non-baseball side,” López said, “which is exactly what makes the award. The award is the embodiment of both on-field and off the field. So instantly, hearing that name, you think of the highest class, the highest level, both of performance and of making sure that you don't forget where you come from, making sure that you remember that we are blessed with this platform and that we can go ahead and take advantage of it in a selfless way.”
López has certainly done that. He makes a point to be available for Twins community events whenever he can, most recently with an event where he purchased and helped distribute back-to-school kits for teachers. He has used the “Pablo Day” promotion to benefit local causes as well.
And while López's philanthropy is broad-based, there are a couple of recurring themes that go back to the first place he called home. He loves supporting educational causes when he gets the chance -- he’s the son of two doctors who constantly emphasized education, and he could have gone to medical school. And he seeks connection to Minnesota’s Venezuelan community when he can, too.
So the recent back-to-school event was perfect.
“[Education is] one of my passions,” he said. “We added the element of the Venezuelans. We found a small dancing foundation, nonprofit foundation within the Twin Cities [Baila Venezuela], that within the last couple of years has seen the Venezuelan community population grow. A little. It’s still different from Venezuela, you don’t see a lot of us up here. But you’re starting to see a few more, so it was pretty cool that we found them.”
That selflessness, and support of community, exemplifies the person that López’s teammates see in the clubhouse.
“He gives a lot of himself,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “He gives a lot to this game. He’s an extremely dedicated and disciplined guy. But he also gives that to people outside this clubhouse. I think he finds it his duty to do things for other people consistently. Part of his mission, just as a person.”