Last year, in the middle of a World Series celebration he had spent two decades dreaming about, Clayton Kershaw took the mic at Dodger Stadium and made a declaration.
“I love you guys, thank you!” he shouted to an adoring Chavez Ravine crowd.
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“Dodger for life!”
On Thursday, that distinction was cemented.
After 18 seasons, three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, more than 3,000 strikeouts and two World Series titles, Kershaw announced he will retire from Major League Baseball after this season.
Kershaw’s announcement, which came in a press release from the team, preceded what could now be his final Dodger Stadium start scheduled for Friday night.
That game will mark his 246th time taking the bump at the only ballpark he has ever called home. Depending on what happens in October, when Kershaw will make one more run at one more championship, it could be his last.
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After 222 wins, more than 2,800 innings, and a career 2.54 ERA, his countdown to Cooperstown will begin this winter.
After serving as the face of the franchise during one of the most successful runs in club history, the book will finally be closing on his illustrious Dodgers career.
Kershaw’s retirement had been a long time coming. Over each of the past four offseasons, he contemplated whether or not to walk away from the game. An 11-time All-Star and five-time ERA champion, he long ago ensured his spot as a future Hall of Fame pitcher. As the franchise’s all-time strikeout leader, his place in club lore had already been enshrined.
Yet, the 37-year-old Kershaw never lost his desire to play.
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Despite an elbow injury at the end of the 2021 season, a shoulder surgery after the 2023 campaign, and foot and knee procedures this past offseason, he came back to continue his Dodgers career — never ready to give up another title chase.
This year, he has authored the kind of renaissance season that once felt beyond him. He is 10-2 in 20 starts with a 3.53 ERA, succeeding despite diminished fastball velocity and a decline in overall stuff. He has been an integral member of a first-place Dodgers team. And though one more postseason run lies ahead, with the Dodgers trying to defend last year’s World Series title, he decided his time in baseball was finally up.
“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” Dodgers owner Mark Walter said in the team’s release. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Originally drafted seventh overall by the Dodgers out of Highland Park High School in Texas in 2006, Kershaw has spent the entirety of his professional life in the organization, going from top prospect to young sensation to Cy Young winner to pitcher of his generation.
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He made his MLB debut in 2008, and broke out as a star the following year. By 2011, he had earned his first All-Star selection, his first ERA title and his first Cy Young Award. The accolades would keep coming after that — with Kershaw leading the majors in ERA each season from 2011-2014, winning two more Cy Youngs in 2013 and 2014, and becoming only only the 22nd pitcher to ever win MVP honors with his 21-3, 1.77-ERA season in that historic 2014 campaign.
The back half of Kershaw’s career was plagued by injuries, starting with a bad back that sidelined him for part of 2016.
Still, he earned another ERA title in 2017, while helping the Dodgers win their first pennant in 29 years. He had a resurgent performance in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 6-2 in the regular season with a 2.16 ERA before finally experiencing a World Series title.
Up to that point, the postseason was the only area were Kershaw struggled. In 32 playoff outings from 2008-2019, he was 9-11 with a 4.43 ERA — mediocre numbers underscored by excruciating collapses against the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros and Washington Nationals along the way.
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But in 2020, Kershaw vanquished such demons, making five starts and going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in the Dodgers’ first victorious World Series run since 1988. The title, Kershaw has said since, meant more than even he could have ever imagined.
“I think having that [World Series] definitely started letting me relax a little bit more,” Kershaw said in 2023. “I didn’t realize I had been carrying that weight that much.”
And once he won it once, the notoriously competitive left-hander craved to do it again.
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That’s why, even as his body has continued to break down in recent years, Kershaw kept coming back every spring. He believed, when healthy, he could still contribute to a World Series roster. And despite numerous free-agent flirtations with his hometown Texas Rangers, he always saw the Dodgers as the best way to get there.
It made last year’s World Series title a sentimental one for the iconic left-hander. Kershaw was a limited participant, making only seven starts in the regular season before missing the playoffs with his foot and knee problems. But he relished in the celebration, especially the title-winning parade that the 2020 team had been denied by the pandemic.
He knew then that he would be a Dodger for life.
On Thursday, it finally became official.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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