Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Okay. Let’s be clear about what the All-Star game is and what it is not. It is primarily an exhibition game. The entire purpose of the contest is to put a lot of eyeballs on the sport’s best players. Celebrating the wily veterans. Introducing the wider world to the young studs. And most of all, getting fans fired up for the second half of the year hopefully to increase the game’s visibility once the pigskin starts flying and the sports landscape gets more crowded in the fall.
Other than that, the game is meaningless. The league made an attempt to have the game matter a few years ago with the decision to let the winning league get home field advantage in the World Series, but that has gone by the wayside. Its entire raison d’être is to market the sport.
So, given those parameters, doesn’t it seem obvious that Clayton Kershaw should be the starter for the National League? The reason for this are many, but let me enumerate a few for you right here.
1. We need to right a historical wrong
It is a complete and utter joke that Kershaw has never been given the nod to start an All-Star game, even in his prime in the early to mid-2010’s. For seven straight seasons, he was top-five in the Cy Young voting, winning it three times. And winning the MVP in 2014, almost unheard of for a pitcher. In those years, who were the NL starters in the the ASG? Roy Halladay, Matt Cain, Matt Harvey, Max Scherzer (twice), Johnny Cueto, and Zack Greinke. These are all good choices, but how do you get through that run that Kershaw had and never give him the ball to start the All-Star Game? Not even once? Ridiculous.
2. Kershaw has excelled on the field this season
Second, just on its face, Kershaw is having a fantastic 2022. Over 71 innings, he is 7-2 with a 2.13 ERA. His WHIP is a miniscule 0.91 and he has 75 K, more than a strikeout an inning. Twice this year, he’s taken a perfect game into the 8th inning. But for the lone clunker in Coors Field last month, these stats would be even lower. These are not charity case numbers. Because of his injury he doesn’t have enough innings to be on the NL leaderboard, but if we threw him on there anyway, his ERA would be third among NL pitchers, trailing only Sandy Alcantara and Tony Gonsolin. Shouldn’t one of those guys be the starter then, you might say? They can call me when they’ve won their third Cy Young, okay? I don’t want to hear it.
3. The game’s in LA, man
Third, the game is at Dodger Stadium. No pitcher has been so dominant at his home ballpark as Kershaw at Chavez Ravine. For more than a decade, Kersh has ruled this mound. In 199 home starts in the regular season, Clayton is 101-40 with a 2.20 ERA. Plus, Dodger Stadium was the site of one of the greatest triumphs of his career, the no-hit, 15-strikeout masterpiece that he threw against the Rockies in 2014. If not for a Hanley Ramirez error, that would have been a perfect game as well. If this is indeed the final season for Kershaw in Dodger Blue, an All-Star Game start in his home ballpark would be a fitting farewell.
4. Clayton is a great face to show to the world
In the world of self-pimping, entitled athletes, Clayton Kershaw stands out. Humble, committed to his family, dedicated to improving the world around him through his many charitable contributions and actions. Seeing Ellen Kershaw and Clayton’s kids cheering for daddy from the Dodger Stadium stands is exactly the kind of press that baseball needs. Every industry has its free spirits and bad apples (lookin’ at you, Trevor Bauer), but every once in a while, it’s good that we can celebrate something as wholesome as Clayton Kershaw.
Come on, Baseball, do the right thing…
If Sandy Alcantara wants to win the Cy Young this year, have at it. If Tony Gonsolin wants to prove that his first half was not a fluke, go for it. But the All-Star Game is something different. It seems like Rob Manfred is starting to recognize that when he invited Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera to participate, regardless of what their season stats might say. It is good to honor legends on their way out of the game. Now, I’m not sure that Clayton is on the way out or (please, God, no) on the way to the Texas Rangers. But I do know this. On July 19th, he should be on that mound throwing the first pitch of the 2022 All-Star Game.
He’s earned it.
