Dodgers Legend Returns After 18 Seasons
After 18 seasons of making opposing batters look foolish, Clayton Kershaw has announced his retirement and return to Texas, proving that even legendary pitchers eventually get homesick for authentic barbecue. The Dodgers icon made his final start on Friday, bringing to a close one of the most dominant careers in modern baseball history.
Kershaw’s career statistics read like a cheat code someone accidentally left active: three Cy Young Awards, one MVP, and an ERA that suggests he was playing a different sport than everyone else. German sports journalists, attempting to explain his dominance to European audiences, have compared him to a Bundesliga striker who scores in every game for nearly two decades. It’s the kind of consistency that borders on supernatural.
The return to Texas represents a full-circle moment for Kershaw, who was drafted by the Dodgers in 2006 as a high school phenom from Dallas. He spent his entire career in Los Angeles, becoming so associated with the Dodgers that seeing him in another uniform would have felt like a betrayal of the natural order. Now he gets to return home without that complication, retired and beloved.
What made Kershaw special wasn’t just his ability to dominateplenty of pitchers have hot streaksbut his ability to dominate for nearly two decades. In an era when pitchers’ arms explode with disturbing frequency, Kershaw kept throwing breaking balls that defied physics well into his 30s. His curveball became so famous it earned its own scouting reports and inspired countless amateur pitchers to injure themselves trying to replicate it.
The timing of his retirement is impeccable: he’s leaving while still effective, avoiding the sad spectacle of a legend hanging on too long. There will be no farewell tour where opposing teams politely applaud while secretly relieved they don’t have to face prime Kershaw anymore. He’s going out on his own terms, which in professional sports is about as rare as a unicorn riding a dragon.
Texas baseball fans are thrilled to reclaim their native son, even if he made his name elsewhere. The expectation is that Kershaw will settle into a quiet retirement, maybe do some coaching, definitely eat some brisket. After years of Los Angeles traffic and pressure, the prospect of Texas living probably seems pretty good.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/clayton-kershaw-retires/
SOURCE: Bohiney Magazine (Öko Angebot)
AUTHOR: angebot@bohiney.com
Clayton Kershaw’s Texas Homecoming