BRONX, N.Y. (April 21, 2019) — Julio Pabón. Latino Sports President and founder of the LatinoMVP awards, announced yesterday the awaited winners of the 2019 LatinoMVP awards. “Thirty years of awarding what has developed into the oldest and most prestigious awards given to Latino baseball players will not be interrupted because of this COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Latino Sports was planning major presentations in celebration of this important and historical 30th anniversary of these Latino awards. Unfortunately, the unexpected and dangerous pandemic not only cancelled all of the 2020 baseball season, but also cancelled many of the ancillary baseball events that are interrelated to America’s Pastime. Moving forward with this year’s awards that are always announced and awarded the succeeding season was difficult. However, the Latino Sports team was not about to have a thirty-year history interrupted. It took some creativity and collective work to circulate, collect and tally the votes due to many participants affected directly by the virus. It took a bit longer, but we overcame and proud to announce the 2019 winners.
We will work to make sure that every winner receives their award by postal delivery and have them share any comments that we will post on our social media platform for all fans to see. We thank MLB for their support in helping to get these awards out to the winners and continue our national pastime during these difficult times of this COVID -19 Pandemic.
2019 Latino MVP Award winners:
Latino American League MVP: Gleyber Torres, NY Yankees
Latino National League MVP: Anthony Rendón, Wash. Nationals
Latino MVP American League Pitcher: José Berríos, Minn. Twins
Latino MVP National League Pitcher: Aníbal Sánchez, Wash. Nationals
Latino MVP American League Relief/Closer: Aroldis Chapman, NY Yankees
Latino MVP National League Relief/Closer: Seth Lugo, NY Mets
Latino MVP American League Rookie: Yordan Álvarez, Hou. Astros
Latino MVP National League Rookie: Pete Alonzo, NY Mets
HISTORY OF THE AWARDS
The awards began in 1989 when many Latino sports professionals believed that Ruben Sierra was overlooked by the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for the American League MVP who gave the award to Robin Yount of the then Milwaukee Brewers. Yount had a good year as well, but arguably, the young Sierra in his third year with the Texas Rangers had led the league in many of the offensive categories, thus sports writers, especially those from Puerto Rico and many cities in the mainland with large concentration of Puerto Ricans and Latinos believed Sierra should have been the American League MVP.
That was when Latino Sports president, Julio Pabón who was in Puerto Rico at the time first learned about the controversy and believed that perhaps giving Sierra an award would help quiet the controversy. He organized the first LatinoMVP award the succeeding year. Since that day in 1990 Latino Sports has been organizing the award on a yearly basis. “This award is to allow Latino players to get the recognition that they deserve and become the role models that many young Latino children need to see,” Mr. Pabón had stated during the first award ceremony held in Yankee stadium in April 1990 and still so needed today. That was the first time that the Yankees hosted an on field ceremony for a non-Yankee active player.
