Tonight, We are Young: On Kershaw and His Legacy

Clayton Edward Kershaw. His birthday is one day after mine, and he was drafted the year I got into baseball, the year I graduated high school. It was an ascendant rise from the moment he struck out Sean Casey on a curveball in Spring Training of 2008 to the peak of 2014 when he won the MVP. 

It’s rare and it’s something to be cherished that the player I picked as my favorite went on to have a Hall of Fame career, like, so many chosen favorite players flame out wildly. But the player I chose as my favorite turned out to be the best pitcher of his generation that never got traded. That’s incredibly lucky—to have 15 seasons with one player who you’ve followed from the moment they entered the organization. 

At points, his greatness skewed my perception of myself. To me, back then, it wasn’t a rapid ascent but rather an expectation. I thought I was bound for the same accelerated trajectory in film. It turned out that I wasn’t but I tried my damndest at 23 to make graceland a hit. In a lot of ways, though, this parasocial relationship also helped me get through my 20’s–if Kershaw was doin’ fine, then I was doin’ fine.

His warmup/entrance song for the past decade has been Fun’s “We are Young.” At first, it was like, “You are young!” but now that he’s in his fifteenth season, the song has gained more prescience as he nightly tries to recapture the peak he once had. Sometimes it shines through, and sometimes it falls flat–usually depending on how his slider is acting on a given night. But hearing him warm up to this song has always given me goosebumps, even if the song kinda sucks in any other context.

Anytime Kershaw is mentioned now, it’s as a future Hall of Famer. He spent about seven years as the best pitcher in baseball, topping the preseason rankings year over year. It wasn’t until his fucking back gave out that first time in 2016 that we started to see signs of decline. He’s also had to adapt to reduced fastball velocity, getting by on guile and deception instead of blowing it past people. 

In that era from like 2011 to 2016, though… Greatness became boring. He was going out there every night giving up zero or one earned runs and it became rote. I got to see him pitch during that MVP season of 2014. He made a bananas behind the back catch that’s still in the highlight reels. I feel blessed that I was able to see him perform in person many times.  It’s amazing how you can just come to expect such insane feats night after night but alas… I definitely slept on parts of his peak simply because it was expected. It wasn’t until later in his career, when he kept throwing his back out and his fastball was down to 90-91, that I started to celebrate every start. When you see the end is near, you begin to try’n appreciate every pitch.

At the same time, I’m bracing myself for the day a player almost my exact age retires. That means a player my age is getting too old to play the game. I can remember so vividly when all the players were in their 20s like me and now all of a sudden I’m still fairly young in people years but absolutely ancient in athlete years. Buster Posey’s recent retirement definitely pointed out that I needed a change in perspective. Even on into retirement, though, Kershaw will always remain my favorite player.