There was a time several years ago when I asked Vin Scully about the great Clayton Kershaw — just because who better to have asked anyone a Dodgers question, about any of them back to Brooklyn and the 1950s? He had been around long enough to see Kershaw at his best the way he saw Sandy Koufax at his best. Mostly, I was interested that day about the relationship between Dodgers fans and Kershaw.
“Not only do they appreciate him,” Scully said. “They love him. Maybe in part it’s because of what he’s been able to accomplish, with that same kind of grace, in the long shadow of Mr. Koufax.”
It was a fitting comparison and connection, not necessarily because of the way the two men pitched, just of what they meant to their teams, to their city and to baseball. Kershaw did become Koufax for a new generation
Koufax and Kershaw. The Dodgers’ two K guys.
Of course Sandy Koufax, at his best, was the best left-handed pitcher in all of baseball history. Between 1961 and ’66, his record was 129-47, he won three Cy Youngs and an MVP, the Dodgers won two World Series, and he tossed four no-hitters, including a perfect game. In those six seasons alone, before he retired because of injury at 30, he struck out 1,713 batters.
But nearly 40 years later Kershaw — who will retire after this season, his 18th with the Dodgers — showed up at Dodger Stadium to make his own history. He would win three Cy Youngs and an MVP himself, make 11 All-Star Game appearances and strike out more than 3,000 batters. Right now, his lifetime record is 222-96. Along the way, he saw the Dodgers win their first World Series since 1988 (2020), and then do it again last season — even if he was injured last October and unable to participate in the postseason.
What Kershaw has really done — always with the grace Vin Scully spoke of — is cast a long and honorable left-handed shadow of his own for the Dodgers. A giant shadow. A different style of pitcher than Koufax, obviously. But still their Koufax.
Kershaw has been managed for the past 10 seasons of his career by Dave Roberts. So Roberts saw Kershaw at his best, too, the way Scully did from the broadcast booth. The two men did so much winning together across the second half of Kershaw’s career.
I asked Roberts on Thursday about Kershaw, and what it has been like to manage him for this long. This is what he told me:
“It’s been a true pleasure managing one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. We have been through so much together. But his character, work ethic and desire to compete are unparalleled.”
The rap on Kershaw for such a long time, the one hole in his resume was that for all the greatness he had shown in the regular season across all the years, he had not been as great in the postseason. But then came 2020, and Kershaw finally had his October. He was 4-1 in five starts that year, a COVID-shortened year in baseball, with a 2.93 ERA.
There was no World Series parade that year, because of COVID. But then came last season, the Dodgers doing it again. And even though Kershaw — who had made just seven starts during the regular season — wasn’t physically able to be part of that Dodgers postseason run, he at least finally got his parade. And, who knows, maybe he will get one more in six weeks or so.
Kershaw doesn’t just go in with Koufax, he goes in with the most legendary Dodgers of them all, with Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella and Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese and the rest of Brooklyn’s Boys of Summer. He goes in with Don Newcombe and Don Drysdale and Fernando Valenzuela.
There is something else that connects Kershaw and Koufax: They pitched through pain. It was elbow pain with Koufax that finally became too much for him. Later, there was elbow pain for Kershaw, and shoulder surgery after that. But he came back and did what Koufax did, which means he came back and took the ball. Kershaw will finally end up with 250 starts at Dodger Stadium alone. This season, at the age of 37, coming back from injury again, he has a record of 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA.
It is fair to wonder, with all the pitching injuries the Dodgers have had with both starters and relievers, just where they would be in the National League West without Kershaw. One last time, he has been indispensable for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has somehow found a way, in his own late innings, to pitch up to his own high standards.
“I’m really at peace,” Kershaw himself said.
He ought to be. Sandy Koufax has his own K Corner in Dodgers history. Clayton Kershaw has his.
