Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw Makes MLB Debut 11 Years Ago Today
The course of the Dodgers franchise changed on this date in 2008 when a 20 year-old Clayton Edward Kershaw made his major league debut at Dodger Stadium against the St. Louis Cardinals.
On this day in 2008, #KershawDay began. @ClaytonKersh22’s final line in his debut: 6 IP, 5H, 2ER, 1BB, 7K pic.twitter.com/f1ecUQL60B
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 25, 2019
On June 6, 2006, Kershaw was drafted out of Highland Park High School in the seventh round of the MLB Draft by Ned Colletti’s front office.
Just under two years later a young Kershaw, touching 97mph with his fastball, was on the mound at Dodger Stadium and striking out future teammate Skip Schumaker for the first K of his career.
The defense behind Kersh from that game is a true who’s who of throwback Thursdays.
In between his draft day and MLB debut, he quickly ranked as the Dodgers top prospect in 2007 and 2008, and represented the club at the All-Star weekend Futures Game in San Francisco.
Since that day Kershaw has accumulated 7 All-Star game appearances, 3 Cy Young awards, an NL MVP, a Roberto Clemente award and the list goes on.
His 64+ bWAR leads all other 2006 draft picks by a sizable margin.
In short, Clayton Kershaw worked out.
Happy Anniversary, Kersh!
“The defense behind Kersh from that game is a true who’s who of throwback Thursdays.”
Since you brought it up, who was playing defense?
Hi David. It’s actually an image embedded within the article, but with a plugin our website has, you might not see it so the article can load faster! Apologies for the misunderstanding!
The box score featured Juan Pierre, Luis Maza, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, James Loney, Matt Kemp, Blake DeWitt, Chin-lung Hu behind Kersh on defense.
Hope this helps!
Nice post, FRG. My gosh seeing him in that photo makes me feel old. Even the Palm Trees look young!
The 95 and 97mph pitches are what make me feel old!