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LOS ANGELES — At 3:28 p.m., Clayton Kershaw walked through the Los Angeles Dodgers’ clubhouse. Wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sneakers, the man who for a generation personified a franchise and carried the hopes of a city, went about his work one more time. Friday marked the last time he will ever start a regular-season game at Dodger Stadium, but the retiring Kershaw still, always, had his routine.
It was the routine centered on every fifth day that charted this path toward being perhaps the best pitcher of his generation. It was that routine that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman urged every young pitcher who followed Kershaw to watch and follow. Veterans and prospects alike turned to watch him, hoping to extract something repeatable. No one did it like Kershaw, for whom time mattered above all.
At 6:23 p.m., Kershaw exited the Dodgers’ dugout and strolled toward the bullpen. A crowd of 53,037 that had watched him since he was 20 years old rejoiced. Few pitching prospects have come with as much hype as the Texan with a 97 mph fastball and a curveball that Vin Scully coined as “Public Enemy No. 1.” Even fewer lived up to it.
