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 donât know him well — I donât know any of the players well — but in watching him and reading what he has to say, heâs an extraordinary young man besides being a very good pitcher. He uses things to improve. So you say to him, âwow what a contract!â Well that could weigh down a lot of people. Or a guy could say, âIâve got it madeâ — with him Iâm sure heâs driven to prove that he deserves that. Now he has a baby, a brand new little baby girl. Thatâs going to drive him. Heâs just that kind of a personality. So I donât 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 heâs equipped to do it. Anything can happen, like that broken-bat line drive that hit him in the jaw. Thatâs 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. Heâs going to use that. Everything, he uses in a positive way.