Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — Though Clayton Kershaw fought his way through the postgame press conference, there was an unspoken truth that hung in the air like a thick smoke. This was possibly the last time that LA fans would ever see their beloved ace pitching in Dodger blue.
“It just got bad enough to where I couldn’t keep going tonight,” Kershaw said in a postgame press conference. “I’ll get it looked at again, obviously, in the next couple days. Haven’t quite wrapped my head around all that yet.”
Neither have Dodger fans. The Dodger Stadium crowd rose as one to give their wounded warrior a standing ovation as he walked off the mound for what they Dodgers called “forearm discomfort”. But call it what you will, the chances of Kershaw contributing to the Dodgers’ postseason are very, very slim. And that was a fact that was not lost on the three-time Cy Young winner.
“The biggest thing was I just wanted to be part of this team going through October,” he admitted in that same postgame interview. “This team is special. You saw tonight. … I’ve known that. I know that we’re gonna do something special this year, and I wanted to be a part of that. That’s the hardest part for me right now is just knowing that chances are it’s not looking great for October right now.”
Clayton has been “our” superstar
It is hard to fully describe the relationship between Clayton Kershaw and this LA fanbase. Rising from the ashes of the McCourt years, Kershaw led the way to a new and glorious future for the team. This new version of the Dodgers, led by Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, was a smarter ballclub than past iterations of the Dodgers had been. Spending its money wisely, developing talent in-house, picking up undervalued players and turning them into stars.
Clayton didn’t need to be turned into a star. He was a star. Almost from his debut as a 20-year-old phenom, Kershaw ruled the mound at Dodger stadium. His heater and curveball were elite, but when he added that slider in 2009 (at the suggestion of bullpen catcher Mike Borzello), it was next stop Cooperstown. For the next decade, Kershaw put up dominant numbers, video-game like numbers. Ten straight seasons of a sub-3.00 ERA. (Three seasons with an ERA under 2.00!). The only regret I have about those days is that because of the bone-headed Dodgers/Time Warner deal, so much of Los Angeles was robbed of seeing him at the height of his powers. Imagine how much more his impact could have been if he hadn’t been blocked out of so many LA homes for nearly a decade.
Growing through the disappointments
Of course, the three Cy Youngs were important to him, but you could tell what the guy wanted to do most of all was win. And win on the biggest stage. A lot of ink has been spilled on the supposed failings of post-season Kershaw, and I don’t need to rehash it here, but suffice it to say that a lot of the hardship was a factor of management (I’m looking at you, Don Mattingly) asking too much of their superstar. But the heartbreaks early in Clayton’s career had exactly the opposite effect than what you might expect. Instead of screaming to ride the bum out of town on a rail, the Dodgers’ family empathized with Kersh and felt his pain right along with him.
When we saw that hangdog expression in the dugout a few too many times, we were crying on our sofas at home, too. Yes, because the Dodgers lost, but more because Clayton deserved so much better than this. So as the years went by and the World Series drought continued, it was like Clayton and the city were in this together. And we knew that we were going to prevail sooner or later.
By 2017, the rest of the team had finally caught up with the brilliance of their ace. And though, Clayton was cruelly robbed of his title that year, we knew that it was within our grasp. When we finally did see Kersh win it all last year (albeit 1,500 miles away), Dodger fans felt that something had been set right with the universe. That the wheels of the baseball gods may have ground slowly, but indeed in the end they had ground oh so fine.
Clayton the un-LA hero
LA gets the reputation (completely undeserved in my estimation) of being all glitz and glamour, but Kershaw is about as far away from that stereotype as you can get. Humble, full of good humor, but feisty and combative when he needed to be. In a city full of third marriages, Clayton was still together with his high school sweetheart. And in an age of show-offs, Clayton’s quiet life of faith with his wife and young family were at odds with the times, but we loved him all the more because of it.
Clayton Kershaw is good people, as folks used to say. And we all want what’s best for him. I can’t imagine that would include pitching next year for anyone other than the Dodgers, but if that does come to pass, we will know that we had a front row seat to greatness.
In every sense of that word.
