Pittsburgh Pirates News: Jameson Taillon Nominated for Award

The Pittsburgh Pirates will not have a lot of hardware coming back to their team this offseason.  However, one player was nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award.

The most storied player in the Pittsburgh Pirates history is Roberto Clemente.  He is famous for his play on the field, but he is also applauded for his efforts in the community.  Clemente was especially active back in his home territory of Puerto Rico, along with other Latin American countries.  The former Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder is considered one of the biggest humanitarians in sports history.

How do players get nominated for this award?  Like Clemente, the award winner is considered to be very active in their team’s community and/or across the country.  Each team in Major League Baseball nominates a player from their team for the prestigious award.  The league announces the winner of the award during the World Series.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will have Jameson Taillon as their Roberto Clemente Award nominee.  If you are a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and live in the Pittsburgh area, you know that Jameson Taillon deserves this nomination.  There are constant charity events that he is seen at, along with just being super fan friendly at the stadium. Of course, he is also an inspiration to many as he beat testicular cancer during the 2017 season and quickly return to the mound. Furthermore, he also recovered from Tommy-John in his minor league career.  So he has made it through two serious obstacles in his professional career thus far.

Still, there are two specific charities that he does work with that has helped him get nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award. One is Lending Hearts, a local nonprofit that he teamed up with.  Lending Hearts is an organization that helps families affected by cancer. Taillon has a passion for coffee and teamed with the Pittsburgh Commonplace Coffee Company to develop a coffee called Lending Hearts Blend.  All sales of this coffee have proceeds donated to Lending Hearts.  Furthermore, he works alongside Pirates Charities.  Here is more from MLB.com on what Taillon has done:

Jameson continually seeks out opportunities to work with Pirates Charities, especially events supporting those affected by cancer. He visited with pediatric cancer patients during our Childhood Cancer Awareness night, and participated in the baseBALD challenge, having his head shaved by a young superhero struggling with a cancer diagnosis himself.

Obviously, Taillon was able to take a tough moment in his life and make positive from it.  As many know, cancer is one of the hardest things for people and families to deal with.  Taillon had to go through the battles himself and now is trying his best to help support others going through the fight now.  All in all, he is more than a deserving nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award.