MLB honors Clayton Kershaw

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Major League Baseball honored Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw with the Roberto Clemente Award, the game's top humanitarian award, before Game 4 of the World Series Sunday.

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Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty ImagesClayton Kershaw was honored with the Roberto Clemente Award before Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday night.

Much of Kershaw's charitable work has been around issues in Africa. He and his wife, Ellen, visited the continent each of the past two years and started "Kershaw's Challenge," an organization that seeks to assist at-risk children and communities in need.

The Kershaws helped build and sustain an orphanage in Lusaka, Zambia called, "Hope's Home." Many of the children there suffer from diseases and infections related to HIV and AIDS.

Kershaw, 24, won the 2011 Cy Young Award and is among the top few candidates for this season's award, which will be announced next month.

The Clemente award is named after the great Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder, who died in a plane crash in 1972 while en route to delivering earthquake relief supplies to Nicaragua. He finished his career with exactly 3,000 hits.

"It is an incredible honor to receive this award," Kershaw said in a statement. "Just being associated with someone like Roberto Clemente is truly humbling and I am extremely grateful."

Boston's David Ortiz won last year.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Mark Saxon

ESPNLosAngeles.com

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Mark Saxon is a staff writer for ESPNLosAngeles.com. He spent six years at the Orange County Register, and began his career at the Oakland Tribune, where he started an 11-year journey covering Major League Baseball. He has also covered colleges, including USC football and UCLA basketball.