ARLINGTON, Texas… Clayton Kershaw was the last one to reach the field. When the Los Angeles Dodgers were finalized and eventually qualified for the World Series, Kershaw raised both hands when a swarm of teammates passed him by. He came out of the stable in the right center field, withdrew, bowed his head to heaven, and smiled like never before in public.
I’ve tried to accept everything I can, Kershaw said. You never write a script about what you’re going to do and how you’re going to feel, but it was a feeling of satisfaction. It’s like… The job is done. We’ve won. We did it. We won our race, and it’s over. We’ve accomplished our mission. It’s just a sense of satisfaction. Joy.
As the celebration took place and the cuddles multiplied, Kershaw kept repeating the same sentence for him – world series champion, world series champion, world series champion – in the hope of getting involved. By the time it reached the media around midnight local time, this hadn’t happened yet. But reality was inevitable. The greatest pitcher of his time has finally received the highest award. The man who was tirelessly mocked because he did not live up to the expectations in the post-season conditions finally got his justification.
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Do you want to talk about the story? What would it be like to become a champion? said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on the podium after his 3-1 victory in Game 6 on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. He’s a champion forever.
Minutes later, with only a few fans left on the Globe of Life field, Kershaw’s wife Ellen came out of first base to Section 225. Kershaw is still close to nine friends who grew up with him in Highland Park, about 20 kilometres from where he was crowned champion. Seven of them live in the Dallas-Fort Worth subway, another one lives five hours away. They spend their winters in the spacious Kershaw house in Dallas after spending part of the summer all over the country, and most of their squid hang around it.
The name of their focus group: Dear friends.
The coronavirus pandemic required a neutral location for the first World Series, which was near Kershaw’s hometown. Seven of these friends were able to see Kershaw serving during the three rounds of play that followed the season. Kershaw often tries to find and shake them, the only possible link in a bubble environment. That night, joy reached a fever field.
All I want is for him to win the World Series, said one of the members, Will Skelton, days before it finally happened. Sport doesn’t promise justice. Sport can be very violent. Nobody… …in my opinion, in any sport… …deserves more. And it is rooted in his work ethic, in the way he treats people, in his desire to keep his promises to the Dodger organization, to this city. He deserves it as well as he can.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Ace Dodgers Kleion Kershaw has grown about 20 miles from Globe Life. On Tuesday evening he won his first title there, under the watchful eye of his childhood friends. Like they always do. Ronald Martinez/Getty Pictures
Maybe you can get some of these guys. When Kershaw won his second Sai Yung National League prize in 2013, six of them came straight from work to his house, standing in sweaters and khaki, as if posing for the Banana Republic. The Internet burned them. Barstool Sports thought it was a lousy street launch. And the following year, when Kershaw added an MVP to his Sai Young, they added a seventh member and made the joke.
The whole team consists of Skelton, who works for Goldman Sachs and had his second child on Tuesday night, Kershaw, who won his first world series the same evening, Robert Shannon, a chartered accountant who lives in Midland, Texas, and Charlie Dickenson, who works in private real estate; John Dickenson, Charlie’s identical twin brother, who works in commercial real estate; Wade Prosper, vice president of the Havas creative agency in New York; Josh Meredith, a commercial real estate developer; Carter English, a benefit broker; Ben Cardell and Patrick Halpin, both in the energy sector.
The Highland Park school system integrates four primary schools into one junior high school and one high school. They all got to know each other this way, through sports, some of them in the first class.
I think we all share the excitement and disappointment. We all feel that we are on the hill with him and experience all the emotions he feels up to three levels in the stadium.
John Dickenson, Clayton Kershaw’s childhood friend.
Kershaw, a lot of people said it was glue.
Even though we’re all the same age, I think we’re all looking at Clayton, Prosper is 32, like Kershaw said. Not for what he did, but for how he did it.
Some of them join Kershaw every summer to watch the Texas Rangers play along the third baseline in the Globe Life Park, which is always close to the new location. Others were in his school’s baseball team when Kershaw wore the number 22 after Will Clark. When the Major League Baseball announced an almost post-season bubble six weeks ago, consisting of a world series in Arlington, Texas, everyone was thinking what it would be like if their boyfriend, where he grew up, eventually won it all.
I think we all feel the fate, said John Dickenson, who kept playing lacrosse with his brother at the University of Denver.
Halpin was a cornerback and pitcher at Highland Park High School 14 years ago. When Kershaw started, he was a sneaky left-handed man who started getting letters from major university programs in the early 1980s. But Halpin’s expectations changed for Kershaw when he first played with him at the beginning of his final year. The fast ball came unexpectedly close in the mid-1990s, Major League Scouts filled the stands, and Kershaw’s design was high enough for the Dodgers to finish seventh overall in 2006.
Nine of them went to university, while Kershaw studied in the Junior League and settled in higher education. They looked at him when he looked like a superman, and they looked at him when his back problems tore him apart. For the past two years, they’ve watched him work tirelessly to get back to the rhythm he knew in high school. And this year, when they released the 2.16 ERA and launched it in the shortened season at 92 miles per hour, they saw it return to things that seemed lost forever.
Honestly, I really thought this was going to happen, Meredith, the best man at Kershaw’s wedding. Knowing how hard Clayton has worked, always worked and still works throughout his career, and that he’s committed to taking a few days away from his family and seeing the boys on the drivetrain and everything else – it doesn’t shock me at all.
Fault! The file name is not specified. 1Clayton Kershaw’s Best Friends focus group members celebrate Los Angeles’ victory in Game 6 in Arlington, Texas. Thanks, Carter English.
KARDELL looked at the huge scoreboard on the right side of the Globe Life when Kershaw came out of the first field of the 5th Globe Life on Sunday evening. He didn’t like what he saw. He typed a message in the group text.
This fast ball at 91 miles per hour makes me nervous.
The second group of cats appears after each season with the subtitle Ellen for Clayton (this cat has no name). Kershaw’s friends spent most of the game four by watching him serve and having a chance to win it all the next night – then came the end of game nine, Chris Taylor’s rocker, Randy Arosarena’s stumble, Will Smith’s clutch, and the most incredible outing imaginable. Kershaw’s friends began to express their disappointment in group conversations before they quickly realized that they were doing so in the one where Kershaw was. They changed fast.
Under normal circumstances, the group usually makes annual trips to see Kershaw Field in two episodes of the regular season – one in Los Angeles, the other in the street park – and in each post-season episode. Most of them were present for almost each of Kershaw’s 30 post-season seasons, which began in the last ten years and died in each service.
After years of disappointment in October, Clayton Kershaw left the field with a standing ovation and leadership. Jeff Pasan
– As part of the Kershaw Championship
I don’t think I slept well for 10 years in October, Halpin said.
I think we all share the excitement and disappointment, John Dickenson said. We all feel that we are on the hill with him and experience all the emotions he feels up to three levels in the stadium.
The Englishman said he was sick all Sunday, knowing what was at stake for Kershaw in game five, with a run that suddenly stabilized at 2 and a momentum that seems to be on the other side. Prosper is very superstitious when Kershaw gives his speech. Sometimes he stops getting up from his couch if it caused an earlier blow. When there were two flights on Sunday in the fourth run and none on Sunday, it was almost 10 pm on the East Coast. Prosper looked from the living room to the village in the west.
I’m on the edge of the abyss, Prosper said. It’s like watching a thriller in real time.
When Manuel Margo stole second base and ended third with a strange pitch, Halpin’s first thought was left over: Not yet. Not yet. Then Kershaw revived, registered a strike, and Margot broke into her home. Kershaw’s seven best friends – Meredith, Cardell, Halpin, Shannon, the Englishman and the Dickenson twins – were in the bleeding seats at first base, which Ellen was able to book at the last minute. You saw the play develop for Kershaw.
That he can afford to remove the rubber and throw it away instinctively and so quickly – we’ve all gone mad, the Englishman said. And we’re all distracted from each other, so we all look at each other and go crazy. That was all the excitement, brother.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Kershaw and English on the field in the Dodger Stadium. Thanks, Carter English.
Kershaw has retired the next five fighters. Roberts stepped off the bench to push his baseball back with two outs in the sixth inning. Kershaw’s friends were upset. Some thought he could make it to 7:00. Halpin hit his hat on the ground while the stadium was booing with 11,437 fans. As emotions subsided, Cardell remembered all the times that Kershaw had been in the game too long.
We saw a different scenario, Mr Cardell said, and it was much better.
After the end of the season and the 4-2 victory of the Dodgers, who beat them out of the Championship, while Kershaw won two games in the same post-season series for the first time in his career, congratulations began filling the chat room of the Best Friends. His friends keep it short because they know the Kershaw is flooded at times like this. Someone later also sent a link to a press conference of the two oldest Kershaws, Kali and Charlie.
Then the British noticed something in Kershaw.
It was just cool to see how relieved he looked, the Englishman said. It felt like a weight was being lifted from my shoulders.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Kershaw – third from the left in the front row after the current NFL QB Matthew Stafford and Halpin – was very competitive from the start and ate nine tacos on his ninth birthday just to be the first of his friends to weigh 100 pounds. Thanks to Ben Cardell.
CLAYTON KERSHAW ATE 9 Tacos on his 9th birthday He celebrated his 100th birthday because he was about to hit 100 pounds and because he wanted to be the first of his friends – along with current Detroit Lyon quarterback Matthew Stafford – to reach the bar. For some, this is one of the first signs of a constant, sometimes irrational level of competition.
I don’t think the world has seen a bigger competitor than Clayton, John Dickenson said. He’ll do anything to win.
Of course, the 2020 season has only just ended. No, we have no idea how it’s gonna go out of season. We always play against all 30 teams.
To an early performance appraisal
The Englishman remembers Kershaw hitting his head on a mechanical goal while chasing a free kick while playing basketball in the singles. Charlie Dickenson remembers a time when Kershaw tried to get the best score on the trampoline, landing so hard on his knees that he was afraid he would break both kneecaps. John Dickenson likes to mention an argument that broke out when Kershaw was the center of the high school football team in Stafford’s first year. The dog epidemic arose after a standard transmission against one of Highland Park’s rival schools and became more and more intense.
Suddenly you see Clayton appear out of nowhere, jump to the top of the pile and start throwing hay, said John Dickenson. We’ve never seen him strike before. We always knew he was super competitive, but in a respectable way. Seeing him come out of his element and behaving immature and throwing punches is something we’ve never seen before. We loved it.
Frogger, a classic arcade game in which frogs are led through a stream of dangers, launched a new version for the Apple iPhone in 2011. It soon became a big competition between a group of friends. For about a week, out of season, Kershaw was obsessed with the game. He set the record, broke it, and for a short moment, according to his friends, Kershaw won the world title.
A similar event occurred on a smaller scale two seasons ago, when Ellen Kershaw gave him a Pop-A-Shot band for her gym. Another friend got a very good grade and got the highest score. Mid-February is coming. Soon the Dodgers will start their spring training and Kershaw will have to go.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Cardell and Kershaw, on the right, visit the primary school fair. Thanks to Ben Cardell.
I know that every minute he wasn’t looking at the kids and not sleeping to play Pop-A-Shot, said Meredith, and eventually he got his high score again and immediately took a picture of himself and sent it to the band, so everyone knows he’s coming back to the throne. And then he went to spring training, and we weren’t allowed to play for a year.
This off-season wasn’t like the others. The coronavirus pandemic forced the sport to shut down for more than three months, and Kershaw was in a state of shutdown he had never experienced before. He tried to play golf for the first time because his friends did. Kershaw soon became the best of all, except perhaps for the Dickenson twins, who understand that their time at the top won’t last long.
I’m just waiting for the day he retires and plays regular golf, Charlie Dickenson said. It’ll probably be a month before he’s better than us. And when we’re out playing golf, he’ll be better than me – really better than all of us – in everything you can follow.
Fault! The file name is not specified. Old friends, from left to right, the English, Robert Shannon, Kershaw, Cardell, Halpin, Charlie Dickenson, Meredith and John Dickenson are in a sleepover position Thank you, Carter English.
KERSHAV EXPLUSIVES when his friends see him for the first time in low season. The reason is obvious. In each of the past seven years, the success of the Dodgers’ regular season in October has been followed by a bitter disappointment. And often it’s Kershaw’s fault. His post-season ERA – 4.43 at the beginning of this year – was intended as an excuse to suffocate one of the biggest pitchers in baseball history. It’s a scary thinking that ignores all the times that Kershaw was either prolonged too long or used for short holidays. But it’s still holding up.
He treats it as well as anything he does, much better than I do, Skelton said.
To be honest, I was just devastated, Halpin said. It’s just one of those things where as a sports fan you can see how these labels are applied and it’s so hard to take them off, and I really felt that he invested this time, this effort, this humility to earn the success of the off-season.
Usually the low season starts with clumsy toes around a baseball object. They wait for Kershaw to talk about it and then take their place. We always want him to know that if he deserves it… …for something, he gets it from us, said Charlie Dickenson… …but only when the time is right. Usually baseball is hardly mentioned in conversations. Over the years, her friends have noticed that Kershaw seems less concerned about the history of post-season events and more about how she takes away the performance of her teammates.
– The strangest world series ends at the moment 2020
– Kershaw World Champion in his hometown
-Why Raze Blake Snell moved
– Kershaw rebuilds his playoff legacy
– Passan : The fourth game of the sandbox dream.
Playback round, calendar and other
It’s just an ego boost, Mr. Cardell said. I mean, he’s the most competitive person we all know. It is clear that this has allowed him to reach the level he has reached through hard work. That’s the last thing he wants, he wants the ring. He could have done a terrible service in the World Series, and if they had won, he would have been happy. But it’s like the last bridge he tried to cross.
This month has been a crowning achievement for Kershaw in many ways. He won four of his five starts, ran ten races and defeated 37 butters in the inning at 30⅔. He could have been the best player in the World Series if Corey Seeger had made a few more runs.
Tuesday night, Kershaw was…
– One of 10 fighters who won more than three Cy Young Awards and the only one who didn’t win the title.
– One of the 10 pitchers who led the ERA at least four times and the only one who didn’t win the title.
– One of 10 expansion kickers who won the MVP and the only one who didn’t win the title.
When he finally won, Kershaw was asked what he had proved to his critics and what it all meant for his complex legacy.
He fired him.
These are all bad questions, man… I don’t care, Mr. Kershaw. We won the World Series. I don’t care about the inheritance. I don’t care what happened last year. I don’t care what people think. I don’t care. We won the World Series. The 2020 Dodgers have won the World Series. For example: Who takes care of the rest? There’s no reason to be part of this team. It doesn’t matter. We’ve won. That’s very good.
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