Since 1971, the Clemente Award has been presented to an MLB player who “best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team,” the winner is chosen by a combined fan and panel vote from 30 nominees (one player from each team). Originally called the Commissioner’s Award, the name was changed in 1973 to commemorate Roberto Clemente’s death one year earlier, in a plane crash en route to Nicaragua to provide relief for earthquake victims.  Granderson is the 46th player to receive the award, with Paul Konerko and Jimmy Rollins as dual recipients in 2014, and the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen as last year’s winner.

Granderson’s charity work is well-known to Mets fans. He established the Grand Kids Foundation in 2007 to provide baseball clinics and character development/education programs to underserved areas in New York and other cities. He’s also raised money for other NYC-based charities, is active in the Mets’ veterans’ appreciation programs, and partnered with Citibank in 2016 to raise money for No Kid Hungry.

And I’m happy to report that Granderson is part of a strong tradition of Met Clemente Award recipients—the Mets, Orioles, and Cardinals are all tied at the top with four winners each. Here’s a look at some Clemente Award winners of old—no doubt Grandy’s in good company.

Gary Carter

Is sportsmanship and community involvement calculated into Carter’s 65.3 career WARP? The Clemente recipient in 1989, Gary Carter was also the first catcher ever to win the award. He started the Gary Carter Foundation to support reading programs in poverty-stricken Title I schools in Florida; with him at the helm, the foundation raised over $622,000. The foundation still exists today in his memory, operating a variety of programs to support health and education for Florida children.

Carter was, of course, also an accomplished catcher—11-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003—with a career slash line of .262/.335/.439.

(And speaking of sportsmanship, Merriam-Webster’s 2012 Collegiate Dictionary credits Carter, who seldom cursed, with the proliferation of the term “f-bomb.”)

Al Leiter

The 2000 winner Al Leiter has long been renowned for his philanthropy, having given over $1.5 million to a variety of charities, including the Little Kids Rock support for music education in public schools, the Jason Taylor Foundation for literacy, and the Children’s Cancer and Blood Foundation. Leiter also won the Branch Rickey Award in 1999 and the Bart Giamatti Award in 2002 for his charitable work.

As a pitcher, Leiter was a two-time All-Star and had a 3.80 ERA across 419 games, with a WARP of 21.8.

Carlos Delgado

Awarded the Clemente in 2006, Carlos Delgado is best known for his efforts in Puerto Rico, where he has donated to the non-profit organization Sapientis, and guest-taught with their health and wellness program in a public housing project. He also donated money and time to hospitals across the island, where he brought toys to sick children and purchased video equipment so his hometown hospital could be in contact with Boston hospitals for diagnostic purposes.

Clemente has also been a strong pacifist voice, speaking out against the use of Vieques as a bombing practice target, and making waves as the precursor to Colin Kaepernick by refusing to stand during “God Bless America” because of his opposition to the war in Iraq.

As a first baseman, Delgado was a two-time All-Star and three-time Silver Slugger, with a career line of .280/.383/.546 and a WARP of 46.7.

Great job, team! Coming off a season where the Mets made the controversial decision to pick up Jose Reyes, (or more problematically in my view, give him a hero’s welcome) it’s nice to be reminded of all the great stuff baseball can do for its community. Now, any chance we can get someone to take back Curt Schilling’s Clemente Award?

Photo Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

Edgardo Alfonzo

Signed out of Venezuela as a teenager, Edgardo Alfonzo was a man before his time. These days, a middle infielder with who can hit for average and power and draw walks and field his position is hailed as one of the best players in baseball. But when Fonzie took over as a 23-year-old starter in 1997, we’d never before seen anyone like him in Flushing. Four seasons hitting over .300. Top-10 in franchise history for batting average, on base percentage, home runs, RBI and runs scored. One of the most consistent and versatile infielders of his era, Alfonzo moved from third base to second in 1999 to form one of the best infields in franchise history. His first-inning two-run homer led the Mets over the Reds in the 1999 Wild Card playoff. When the Mets made the World Series the next season, Alfonzo led the team with 6.6 WARP. Two years ago, Alfonzo came back to New York to coach the Brooklyn Cyclones. — Noah Grand (@noahgrand)

Fred Wilpon

You’ll note this week’s topic is not who we want to see on a Mets Hall of Fame plaque. Aside from Mets players, the list of current inductees includes a few executives: Johnny Murphy and George Weiss, the architects of the 1969 Miracle Mets, and Frank Cashen, the general manager for the 1986 World Series winner. The Mets’ first owner, Joan Whitney Payson, was inducted into the Mets Hall in 1981, six years after her death.

Fred Wilpon will turn 80 after this season. He’s intensely concerned about his reputation. You may remember that insane New Yorker profile from 2011. (Sample quote: “Everybody likes Fred, there is tremendous respect for Fred, people listen to what he has to say, and I don’t know of anybody who has ever had an open fight with him.”) Wilpon might not commission his own statue outside Citi Field (and nobody’s going to get a Fred Wilpon tattoo). But Wilpon will be a Mets Hall-of-Famer. The only question is when. — Scott D. Simon (@scottdsimon)

David Cone

Cone’s place in Mets lore occupies that unfortunate stretch of years immediately following ’86, when the team struggled to recapture the success everyone assumed would continue. When Cone was acquired from Kansas City in spring training of 1987, he was an unproven 23-year-old with all of 11 MLB relief appearances to his name. By the time he was traded to Toronto for Jeff Kent in August 1992, Cone was a full-fledged star. He won his only two career strikeout titles as a Met (1990, 1991). His superlative 20-3 season in 1988 helped the Mets to their second NL East title in three years. And while Cone’s star only rose further once he left Queens — he’d win five World Series titles in all, the first coming that fall with the Blue Jays, and his perfect game in 1999 won’t ever be forgotten in the Bronx — he was a consistent winner, even during the offensively lean times of the early ’90s. His time with the Mets was on the short side, but Cone’s results were undeniable. — Erik Malinowski (@erikmal)

Jay Horwitz

Perhaps nobody outside of Bob Murphy, Mets Hall of Fame class of 1984, has had a longer record of contribution to the Mets than the venerable Vice President of Media Relations, Jay Horwitz. Horwitz was hired by the Mets in 1980 and has made an indelible mark on the team as one of the last old-school PR men in the game.

Over the past few years, Horwitz has become something of a pop culture icon for diehard fans. His Twitter account, as infrequently updated as it is, served as great comic relief when the team was not as good on the field. He had a bobblehead night at Citi Field. Tales of his pocket-dialing random contacts are ubiquitous in slice of life stories around the team. He’s as much a part of the fabric of the team as almost anyone, and he deserves induction into the Mets Hall of Fame. – Jarrett Seidler (@jaseidler)

Al Leiter

While this past weekend was spent celebrating a certain 1998 Mets-Marlins trade, another between those teams also had a tremendous impact on the franchise. Al Leiter was no stranger to New York City when he came over from Florida in a February 1998 deal for A.J. Burnett and a couple other prospects. He was a second-round pick by the Yankees in 1984, but overuse led to major shoulder problems. Leiter would not establish himself as reliable until he was traded to the Blue Jays.

By ’98, though, Leiter had thrown a no-hitter and earned World Series rings from the Blue Jays and Marlins; he was considered a superb southpaw. He wasted little time becoming the Mets’ ace. It was Leiter who threw a shutout in the one-game Wild Card playoff in ’99 against the Reds. It was Leiter who the Mets turned to guide them through the postseason in ’99 and 2000. It was Leiter pitching his heart out as the Mets tried desperately to stay alive in the Subway Series, only to be done on a ninth-inning thousand-hopper after 142 pitches.

Leiter’s seven years in Queens were excellent, even as he became one of the few bright spots on sagging teams under Art Howe. As the head of the rotation during the Mets’ finest era since 1986, a spot in the Mets Hall of Fame seems well-deserved for the New Jersey native. — Andrew Mearns (@MearnsPSA)

Ron Darling

Darling was never the best pitcher on his team, but he was  consistently solid. He saved his best performance for the Mets’ championship season, when he spun a 2.81 ERA in 1986. Now, none of this would be enough on its own to get Darling a plaque in the Mets Hall of Fame.

I like when people are able to excel in multiple exploits during the course of their life. Darling’s fantastic work in the Mets broadcast booth puts him over the top. Darling has been with SNY since 2006, so we are now talking about his work in terms of decades. It has been nothing but stellar. Darling has become one of the best color commentators in the game and is part of a broadcast team that is revered as one of the best in the game as well. If Darling stays  with the team, his excellent commentary and knowledge of the game — combined with his  production as a Met — makes him an easy choice for a plaque in the future. — Tyler Plofker (@TylerPlofker)

Gary Cohen

The last time the New York Mets introduced an announcer in their Hall of Fame was 1984, when the trio of Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson received their plaques. However, no Mets announcer is more deserving of the honor than SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen. Cohen started covering the Mets on the radio in 1989 alongside Murphy before taking over primary responsibilities in 2003. He then made the transition to SNY on TV in 2006 and has been a staple of what is arguably the best announcing team in all of Major League Baseball.

Cohen is also celebrated for his memorable calls in New York Mets history such as Todd Pratt’s walk-off home run in 1999 to defeat the Diamondbacks in the NLDS and, more recently, the final out of Johan Santana’s first no-hitter in New York Mets history. Making these calls and announcing every game has made Cohen a staple in Mets fans’ lives. Recently, Cohen’s voice even became recognizable nationwide with his emphatic call of Bartolo Colon’s first career home run. But Cohen is more than just a Mets announcer; he is a fellow Mets fan. — Seth Rubin (@SethRubin)

Photo Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The flamethrowing righty began the 2016 season with a flourish, overpowering the National League in April with 38 strikeouts in just four starts and 26 and two-thirds innings. He has yet to allow a home run and his 12.8 strikeouts per nine innings are the best in the NL, trailing only David Price among all starters. By Baseball Prospectus measures, he leads all starters with a 1.00 FIP and is tied with Clayton Kershaw for the NL lead with a 65 cFIP (again behind only Price for the MLB lead). Syndergaard is in tremendous company and seems to be the most exciting starter on a pitching staff chock full of talent.

Now that Syndergaard is done pitching in April, fans can only wonder what the rest of the campaign could offer. He is probably not going to be quite this spectacular for the entire season and could very well simply be in the middle of a hot streak. After all, Syndergaard is just one of several Mets in franchise history who dominated in April.

Not all arms are alike and April trends vary from year to year, but it can still be revealing to look back on those previous Aprils to see how the pitchers fared for the rest of the season. Using the Baseball-Reference Play Index, I searched all Aprils in Mets history for pitchers who owned the month as much as Syndergaard, which means a sub-2.00 ERA and a sub-1.000 WHIP in at least four starts.

There were 16 other occasions in Mets history with starters as sharp as Syndergaard in April. None of them struck batters out at a better rate than him, though most recorded better ERAs and WHIPs, even with higher innings totals. Compared to their Aprils, here is how those pitchers performed for the entire season, sorted by ERA. (Bold indicates that the pitcher led the league.)

It should hardly come as a surprise that Seaver was able to maintain most of that April form throughout his seasons. Hall of Fame talent usually keeps a pitcher on top, whereas lesser pitchers couldn’t keep pace. Gooden’s 1985 campaign is in the conversation for the greatest pitching seasons of the modern era, so “Doc” topping the list is not a shock, either. ERAs averaged a 101% increase, and WHIPs went up by 29%, forecasting a potential Syndergaard season-ending line of a 3.40 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. (It would make sense to trust in PECOTA’s more mathematically sound 3.04 ERA and 1.09 WHIP rest-of-season projection though.)

Regardless, Syndergaard’s rate stats compare more favorably with the likes of Seaver and Gooden than the others. Harvey’s 2013 would fit in well too … if it didn’t have the asterisk of being somewhat abbreviated thanks to his season-ending Tommy John surgery. The other pitchers were not strikeout artists like Syndergaard, and the lower ERAs unsurprisingly tended to correlate more with high strikeout totals (save for Koosman’s 1968, an anomaly enabled by the Year of the Pitcher’s microscopic statistics). Leiter’s 2002 does not jive with Syndergaard’s 2016 either, as he has consistently walked fewer batters than Leiter typically did. It would probably be asking too much for Syndergaard to match legends like Seaver and Gooden, but since their rates are closest to his, final figures in their general vicinity could be in his future.

Santana in 2009 and Seaver in 1970 likely showed the worst-case scenarios for Syndergaard’s season at this point. Both aces maintained good strikeout rates and control and still had strong campaigns anyway, but their ERAs jumped thanks in part to surrendering at least 20 homers each. Although Syndergaard has yet to surrender a dinger this year, he gave up about a homer per nine innings in 2015. A reckoning will come at some point; it will just be on him to avoid mistakes and, of course, keep baserunners to a minimum.

Syndergaard’s April success has offered some extremely encouraging signs of his evolution as a pitcher. Even if the 23-year-old righty isn’t this dominant for the rest of the season, the successes of these previous April sensations suggest that he is on pace for a truly excellent 2016. The biggest test will be how he reacts to the higher expectations. Thankfully, Syndergaard definitely has the talent to meet the challenge.

Photo Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports