Dodgers Clayton Kershaw: Our World Series Champion GOAT
I can still remember the moment that I became enamored with Clayton Kershaw. As a lifelong baseball fan, of course I knew who he was prior to the spring of 2014 when I took a deep dive into the Dodgers, but until I started following the team on a daily basis, I didn’t really KNOW who he was.
That spring and summer, as I recovered from a depression that had prevented me from working for a few months, I got to know the Dodgers, and the more I watched and learned about the man who would go on to win the NL MVP and Cy Young that season, I continued to fall hard.
Growing up as an Expos fan, my hero was Tim Wallach, and not only because of his wizardry at the hot corner or his heroics at the plate. There was just something about the way he carried himself that I gravitated to, his calm leadership, the way he seemed to be respected by everyone around him. Qualities I hoped to someday possess as an adult.
Clayton Kershaw reminded me a lot of Tim Wallach, who was then his bench coach. Sure he absolutely would prove time and time again that he is the best pitcher I will ever see in my lifetime,
And the moment I knew? As I cried years of joy at 3:30 in the morning after watching this man throw his masterful no-hitter against the Rockies in June of that year. It would become the moment that began my hardcore Dodger fandom, and since then, everything I did became about wanting to see than man get a World Series ring.
I knew then I wanted a championship for him, and I would grow to want to see this happen for him more than anything I’d wanted for a long, long time.
And last night, it finally happened. This man who put this team on his back for years had had too many expectations put on his shoulders, who had poured his life into this franchise, his heart, and soul, who had weathered criticisms year after year, who had been unfairly cheated out of a legacy in 2017, is a WORLD SERIES CHAMPION.
Consider the narrative changed. pic.twitter.com/rBYljG4nsS
— Cut4 (@Cut4) October 28, 2020
Clayton Kershaw is a WORLD SERIES CHAMPION, and now the world will know what we as Dodgers fans have known for a long time: that he is the Greatest Of All Time.
NEXT: A Dave Roberts Redemption Story
As another Atlantic coast Dodger fan, I’ve also had many late nights watching games. But it’s always worth it. Maybe because I have followed Dem Brooklyn Bums all along the way to LA my take on the GOAT is a bit different.
Perhaps we can agree on a shared award with my choice of # 32 Sandy Koufax along with Clayton. They both are gentlemen and pitchers and deserving of the HOF. And you may want to consider another lefty, Fernando, for an honorable mention.
I grew up in Brooklyn and, of course, became a Dodger fan before they moved to LA.
By the time I was old enough to really appreciate this team, I started following my heroes, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. The Dodgers always seemed to have excellent pitchers. I heard about Clayton Kershaw before his first big league game and was hopeful that he would bring back a championship. He did not disappoint. He was everything we had hoped for, although the team went through some ownership issues that delayed things a bit. Yes, he has always been a champion, a leader, a god. Now, he finally has his ring.
Kershaw deserves the accolades for helping win a World Series, but don’t forget Carl Erskine, Don Newcombe, Don Suttton, Orel Hershiser, Koufax, Drysdale and a long line of top notch relief pitchers. Dodger Don since 1949.