The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association on Tuesday afternoon announced Matt Kemp as the Los Angeles Dodgers 2018 Heart and Hustle Award winner. This esteemed award honors active players who demonstrate a passion for the game of baseball and best embody the values, spirit and traditions of the game. The Heart and Hustle Award is also the only award in Major League Baseball that is voted on by former players.
“We are proud to present Matt with this award,” said MLBPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Foster. “He always has a great attitude and plays hard every day.”
The MLBPAA formed 30 committees, comprised of alumni players with established relationships to each team. One player from each Major League team is chosen by the committees based on their passion, desire and work ethic demonstrated both on and off the field. These players will be recognized prior to an upcoming home game. As the season draws to a close, fans, all Alumni and active players will vote to select one final winner from all 30 team winners. The previous overall winners are David Eckstein (2005), Craig Biggio (2006, 2007), Grady Sizemore (2008), Albert Pujols (2009), Roy Halladay (2010), Torii Hunter (2011), Mike Trout (2012), Dustin Pedroia (2013), Josh Harrison (2014), Anthony Rizzo (2015), Todd Frazier (2016) and Brett Gardner (2017).
The final winner will be announced on November 8, 2018 at the 19th Annual Legends for Youth Dinner in New York City. This event is the primary fundraiser for the series of free Legends for Youth Baseball Clinics. These clinics impact more than 18,000 children each year at 185 clinics, allowing them the unique opportunity to interact with and learn from players who have left a lasting impact on the game of baseball.
(Lauren Douglas furnished the information provided in this report)
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Congratulations to Matt Kemp. He appears to be doing a lot of things right.
Now, about that game last night……
LikeLike
Oh yeah, THAT game last night…definitely gotta touch base on that one on here soon!
>:-)
LikeLike
The blogosphere is blow’d up with opinions on how management and Blind Squirrel Baseball is causing hair loss among Dodger fans. Some from nervous alopecia, some from trichotillomania, some is just flat out on fire. There were some truly awful lines in that box score and some truly weird on field decisions, which can be made because of truly awful box score lines.
I feel damaged from watching that one. I’m going to light some candles, some incense, and meditate for a while.
LikeLike
I’m feeling pretty damaged myself Scoop. How about we start a class action suit?
LikeLike
I have very little class, I’m less active than I’ve ever been and I don’t own a suit. So that makes me imminently quailed.
I’m in Jeff.
LikeLike
Yes, about the game. Roberts explained afterward that he didn’t want to use Ferguson because he had thrown 50 pitches two days earlier, young pitcher, etc. OK, fair enough. Then he said, he only wanted to use Hill (who was warming up) in a save situation because otherwise he’d have to pitch multiple innings. OK, I’ll accept that also. Since I’m looking for a reason to pin this loss on Doc (although we should probably blame the hitters’ production for the last 10 innings), I’m going to point out that if he knew how he was feeling about Hill and Ferguson when he brought in Kenley, he never should have double switched Verdugo at that point because Alex is the one guy who could have actually pitched and had a chance to keep them in the game. He was a two way player in high school and half the teams who were interested in drafting him were planning to do so as a pitcher. A little more forward thinking on Doc’s part and they might still be playing.
LikeLike
If you’re going to go with a position player, why not Verdugo? The guy had a 97 mph fastball in high school. You keep him in there for 15 innings then take out and go to Kiké in the 16th? Who’s running this circus?
LikeLike