{"id":528179,"date":"2026-01-19T21:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528179\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:08:17","slug":"salvador-perez-wins-diversity-advocate-award-on-mlk-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/528179\/","title":{"rendered":"Salvador Perez wins Diversity Advocate Award on MLK Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/royals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/royals\">Royals<\/a> catcher and captain Salvador Perez has been named the winner of the Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Advocate Award in Sports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Team leaders say the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jcnaacp.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.jcnaacp.org\/\">Johnson County NAACP<\/a> announced the honor on Monday, Jan. 19 &#8211; Martin Luther King Jr. Day. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMartin Luther King, Jr.\u2019s courage helped change the world and create opportunities for so many of us in sports and other pursuits,\u201d said Perez. \u201cReceiving an honor with his name on it, wow, this is humbling and something I never could have imagined. His legacy is amazing and will last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Royals noted that Executive and General Manager J.J. Picollo will accept the award on Perez\u2019s behalf at the 22nd annual Legacy and Scholarship Awards Dinner Monday night at the Sheraton Overland Park. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSalvador Perez represents how a person can become the leader of men and a hero to them, and a city, by treating everyone with respect, equality and showing them how to be a winner,\u201d said Henry E. Lyons, the President of the NAACP representing Olathe, Overland Park and Leawood, Kan. \u201cThese are the same traits that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. possessed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to the team, the award recognizes sports figures who honor King\u2019s principles. Previous winners include Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman and Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"FILE - Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez smiles after hitting an RBI single off Philadelphia...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4QJEDUMTDJEI7D7X5C6ZP2CJCA.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" \/>FILE &#8211; Kansas City Royals&#8217; Salvador Perez smiles after hitting an RBI single off Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tim Mayza during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)(Matt Rourke | AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The club indicated that Perez has played all 14 years of his major league career in Kansas City. His accolades include: <\/p>\n<p>9 All-Star appearances5 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards5 Louisville Slugger Silver Slugger AwardsWorld Series MVP in 2015<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In 2024, the team also noted that Perez won the Roberto Clemente Award, given to a major league player who best represents baseball through character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions on and off the field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; Royals catcher and captain Salvador Perez has been named the winner of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[70080,36031,7468,5,1316,12029,190,28740,9436,36034,936,2123,55,2596,2595,36033,4,70081,169,36032,967,5319,252,5318,4116,4092,11341],"class_list":["post-528179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-advocate","tag-app","tag-award","tag-baseball","tag-break","tag-captain","tag-day","tag-diversity","tag-facebook","tag-google","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-meta","tag-mlb","tag-mlk","tag-news","tag-nextdoor","tag-on","tag-perez","tag-royals","tag-salvador","tag-twitter","tag-wins","tag-x"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115923813564559372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}