Vin Scully on Clayton Kershaw.

Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw pauses before throwing the final pitch of his no-hitter June 18, 2014 at Dodger Stadium. (John McCoy/Staff photographer)

I asked Vin Scully about Clayton Kershaw during our interview Friday. His answer didn’t fit neatly into my story, so I’m posting his quote here:

He is mind-boggling, he really is. I find, and I don’t know him well — I don’t know any of the players well — but in watching him and reading what he has to say, he’s an extraordinary young man besides being a very good pitcher. He uses things to improve. So you say to him, ‘wow what a contract!’ Well that could weigh down a lot of people. Or a guy could say, ‘I’ve got it made’ — with him I’m sure he’s driven to prove that he deserves that. Now he has a baby, a brand new little baby girl. That’s going to drive him. He’s just that kind of a personality. So I don’t say that he will have the year that he had. I find it hard it to believe that he could, but I do know that he’s equipped to do it. Anything can happen, like that broken-bat line drive that hit him in the jaw. That’s the name of this game. But of all of them, he would be one that I would say the big contract would only affect him in a positive way; the birth of the baby will stir him even more so; the realization the fans and his teammates mean so much. He’s going to use that. Everything, he uses in a positive way.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.