We’d heard plenty about this young left-handed pitcher, dating to that Sunday spring training game in Vero Beach, Florida, in March of 2008, when the young Clayton Kershaw snapped off a classic 12-to-6 curveball to strike out Boston’s Sean Casey and had Vin Scully, televising the game back to Southern California, almost swooning: “Ohhhh, what a curveball! Holy mackerel! He just broke off Public Enemy No. 1.”
We heard more about him once the minor league season began and the 20-year-old Kershaw lit up radar guns in Double-A at Jacksonville, with a 1.08 ERA, 39 strikeouts and 11 walks in 33⅓ innings. I was among those in the media corps suggesting it was time to bring him to the majors, but then-Manager Joe Torre preached caution, saying in early May: “When you think you have something that’s pretty special, you try to do the right thing and err on the side of safety, and I think that’s where we all are now.”
But finally, on May 25, 2008, it was time. And this is what I wrote for The Press-Enterprise about Kershaw’s first start as a full-fledged Dodger, not realizing at the time that this was to be a long and magnificent relationship between this pitcher and his fans:
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LOS ANGELES — This city got its first real look at the reason for the buzz Sunday.
And if day one of the Clayton Kershaw Era is any indication, the hype and the expectations are going to be bigger and louder very soon.
The Dodgers’ 20-year-old left-handed prodigy pitched against the St. Louis Cardinals like he’d been here all along. He gave up two runs and five hits in six innings and 102 pitches, with a fastball that consistently hit 95 and 96 mph, a “snapdragon” curve, as catcher Russell Martin described it, and an effective changeup.
Most importantly, he showed poise, confidence and the ability to battle, rebounding from a 32-pitch first inning to retire 10 of the next 11 men he faced and throw 33 pitches over the next three innings.
Funny thing. About the only thing he hasn’t been able to do this season is earn a victory.
He was 0-3 with a 2.28 ERA at Class AA Jacksonville, a victim of shoddy support. And he lost his chance for major league victory No. 1 Sunday when the Dodgers’ bullpen squandered a 3-2 lead in the seventh.
“It doesn’t matter if you get decisions or wins,” he said. “As long as your team wins, that’s really all that you’re there for, to just give your team a chance to win.”
He will get more chances for personal gratification. And at this point, there are three directions in which this experiment can go.
He could be the Second Coming of Sandy Koufax, a pitcher so transcendent as to make that scorecard from Sunday’s debut worth some serious coin.
He could be the Second Coming of Edwin Jackson, a meteoric rise followed by an equally dramatic flameout.
Or, the more likely scenario, he could be somewhere in between.
Dodgers executives are scared to death of that second option, which is why they were hesitant to jump him to the majors quickly, and why Kershaw will be watched closely and handled carefully now that he’s here.
But if his demeanor is any indication, he’ll be just fine.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be,” Kershaw said. “Every time I pitch there’s some jitters, but there really wasn’t any more or less than any other game I’ve pitched.”
Maybe pitching to major league hitters in spring training – and buckling their knees with that 12-to-6 curveball that made him a YouTube phenomenon – prepared him for this moment.
Maybe he really does believe, as he says, that major league hitters are just the same as any other hitters, “except a little better and a little more experienced.”
And maybe he is, truly, one of a kind.
“I can’t for the life of me think of anyone” comparable, Manager Joe Torre said. “He’s certainly unique, with this kind of poise and stuff and polish at this age.”
Is that poise, that imperturbable manner, the most impressive aspect of his game?
“No, his stuff is,” Torre said, deadpan. “That’s probably what gives him the poise. Not only (the fastball), but the curveball and the changeup, and having an idea what to do with it and when to do it.
“He’s the real deal. You keep your fingers crossed as far as his staying healthy, and we’re going to take as good care of him as we can. But this certainly was a step forward for him, to get this one out of the way. Hopefully, he’ll go out there Friday (in New York) and feel just as good as he did today.”
Before the game, Torre talked of a multitude of options for using Kershaw. They included pitching out of the bullpen or even going back to the minors for a few weeks at some point, if there were a glut of starters and it became a choice of sitting around in L.A. or pitching regularly in the minors.
But Sunday’s events likely caused some serious re-evaluation.
Right now, Kershaw and Chad Billingsley are the two most effective pitchers in the Dodgers’ rotation. And this season just got a whole lot more interesting.
“He’s got more upside than I’ve ever had,” said Martin, who is merely an All-Star catcher.
“He’s going to be a great one, I think. We’ll find out. In 15 years, you guys can let me know.”
It won’t take that long. And he won’t need to take our word for it.
Footnote: Kershaw needed 10 starts to get his first major league victory, sandwiched around a trip back to the minors. (It was against Washington, 2-0 at home, on July 27.) But when he developed a slider in his second major league season, there was no longer any doubt which direction his career would go.
