Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw on the Virtues of Failing
Regardless of what happens in the future, Clayton Kershaw will go down as one of the greatest Dodgers of all-time. The current free agent has had an incredible career in LA thus far. Kershaw thinks he owes a big part of his accomplishments to the foil of success, failure.
The lefty explained his reasoning in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show this week.
“Failure is a part of athletics. It’s a part of sports and I think it’s a great lesson. I learned a lot of things failing as much as I did. Obviously, I don’t recommend it. If you can just win it, you should just win it, but when I finally did, it was pretty special.”
Kershaw’s playoff failures are well documented. Prior to the Dodgers triumph in 2020, Kershaw owned a 4.43 postseason ERA. A far cry from his career ERA of 2.49. During the Dodgers 2020 championship run, Kershaw posted a 2.93 ERA in five starts.
It’s Super Bowl week, so of course Patrick had to ask Kershaw’s about his famous high school classmate, Matthew Stafford. Patrick framed his question as a would-you-rather: lead a team that never makes the playoffs (Detroit Lions) or lead a team that is a perennially title contender that continues to fail (Dodgers pre-2020)?
For many athletes, including Kershaw, the answer was a no-brainer.
“I’ll say this a thousand times, I’d much rather continue to have success and then fail, over and over again, but continue to get there because that’s what you play for.”
The next chapter of Kershaw’s storied career is a mystery at the moment. Due to the current MLB lockout, free agents are unable to negotiate deals with new teams.
Dodgers fans are hoping that Kershaw continues to find success in Dodgers blue in 2022.
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