Just a month after writing a very similar piece about how another blue-clad team with legendary players finally climbed the mountaintop to win, I'm doing it again. Just like the Lightning, the Dodgers have been pre-ordained for years as a World Series Winner to be. The problem was they were never shedding that 'to be' aspect. Until now, and I couldn't be happier for a team, and most certainly their star pitcher in Clayton Kershaw.
I've long said that I do truly wish every all-time great type player wins at least one ring. I don't ask for any more than that. I'll finish my sports fan life being content that Alex Ovechkin won his one ring. That Aaron Rodgers has his one ring (even if he did it in reverse, doing it right at the start). Even the fact that A-Rod got his ring finally. All of that is good. The 'you never won a ring' argument is the single most detrimental argument infecting the sports world today. It's been a bane to our existence from day one. And yes, I am slightly biased having to wade through years of these stupidly treacherous waters being a Peyton Manning fan/.
But truly, outside of Manning, no one exemplified the weight of this curse quite like Kershaw. The images, year after year, of a depressed Kershaw staring at the sky or down at the ground, distressed, mystified, losing. Year after year. Early on in his brilliant, legendary career, it was shocking losses to the Cardinals - the first few evidences before it became an all out postseason legend. Then it was 2017, when the Astros ate him alive, in a game we now know will have the spectre of cheating over it.
**I do need to pause on this for a second. I've so rarely written about the Astros issue because I don't know what to say. I will though state that it pains me a lot that the Astros are the cause of so much pain and hurt for Kershaw - and a lot of that Dodgers team. Kershaw in Game 1 of 2017 was one of the most magical performacnes I've seen. Him in Game 5 was one of the most distressing. I don't like the fact that my teams misdeeds tarnished the legacy of Kershaw for a while.**
The worst was last year. The 2019 Dodgers were a brilliant team - 106-56 with an even better pythag record. Did they got bit, with Kershaw giving up the game tying runs after entering in the 7th with a 3-1 lead. Yes, it was Joe Kelly, trusted for some stupid reason, who gave up the Grand Slam that ended it, but Kershaw blew it. It was the lowest-of-lows - again much like Tampa who had their own record setting season last year felled in the first round.
If that was the Dodgers low, it didn't effect them at all. This whole postseason has been a coronation for a truly great team - one that is better around its precocious pitcher than it ever was before. In 2017 they needed Kershaw to be the undisputed ace. By 2020, they need him to just be good - which he plainly still is with a dominant playoffs.
It's astounding how similar this Dodgers team is to the one that lost to Houston in 2017. Aside from Mookie (which is a whole other issue), the Dodgers lineup and staff reads so similar to that team. Kershaw, Bellinger, Seager, Pederson, Turner, Taylor; all of those guys playing a big part on both teams. Hell, even the guys we don't think of, like Kike Hernandez and Austin Barnes were around that time. That's another similarity to Tampa - they never panicked, never traded the core, never broke it up. They waited it out and it finally coalesced perfectly.
Back to Kershaw, he is the best pitcher of his generation. Sure there was a time when Scherzer seem poised to challenge him, but his arm issues have to be distressing at this point. Then there's guys like Verlander, but his mid-career malaise is something Kershaw never came close to approaching. Kershaw has been so good for so long, his last four years, a time when he's been often noted as declining and past his prime and 'not an ace' read-out like this on a per-162 pace:
19-6, with a 2.64 ERA and a 226-41 K-BB
In his worst, Kershaw is one of the best. Yes, he's never been as great in the playoffs, but there's two large factors to that: a surprisingly high HR% (probably a fluke) and a shockingly high number of runners left on that the bullpen allowed (somewhat his fault, but random). He also has a bunch of gems and great starts. He is the all-time leader in postseason strikeouts. Yes, that is a record more about how good the Dodgers have been, but its a record nonetheless.
Clayton Kershaw has his ring - and there's rarely been a person, Kershaw being a noted uber-charitable guy in his private life, who deserved it more. But the team deserves it all as well. They are an inherently likable bunch, with the most 'unappealing' aspect probably being that weird spaced-out routine Bellinger has. Their an eminently likable team, just as they were in 2017 when they lost to Houston or 2018 when they lost to Boston. Just glad it was finally their time.
It's weird that after all the talk of asterisks, the three sports that have handed out trophies, all in neutral sites (if not outright bubbles), were all one by dominant teams. The Lightning and Dodgers are so similar in their year-in-year-out excellence finally being rewarded with a win. For the Lakers, it was a team that was gerat all year long. Instead of the circumstances making these great teams more susceptible to losing, it made them stronger. They combined to only go to one Game 7 (the Dodgers comeback from 1-3 down). They were all great teams so deserving of their wins.
The 2020 Dodgers are one of the all time teams. Because of the circumstances they probably won't get that credit, but they played the season on a 116-win pace. They romped through the playoffs. They may end up with a good five or so Hall of Famers (Kershaw is the only lock, but Betts is easily on the track, and Bellinger, Seager, Buehler all may end up that way many years from now). But nothing in the end will remain with me than Kershaw. That slow walk he went on after the final strikeout, lazily going out to the mound to celebrate, soaking in every moment of the win - the baseball version of Dirk's dash in tears down the hallway in 2011. The joy in his face lifting that trophy, lifting his kids. All of it was so pure, a beautiful blue ray of light in this darkest of years. Kershaw has his ring. 2020 has been awful for many reasons but for one day all was right in the (sports) world.
