Plaschke: Clayton Kershaw’s Dodgers greatness will forever make him an L.A. icon

He came to town as a quiet Texas kid charged with carrying Hollywood’s team.

For 18 years, in greatness and in grief, through sweet dreams and bitter despair, he did exactly that.

He was splendid. He was awful. He set records. He ruined seasons. He was passionately embraced. He was loudly booed.

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For 18 years, Clayton Kershaw pitched through the gamut of emotions as both a hero and a villain, moments of euphoria addled with spells of despair, picturesque summers disappearing into the wicked wilds of October.

But carry the Dodgers he did, with courage and dignity and grace, and in the end, he will be surrounded only by love, a deep and abiding roar of affection from a city to a simple man who willed himself into legend.

Clayton Kershaw announced Thursday he is retiring at the end of this season.

The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building.

He is more enduring than Sandy Koufax, more accomplished than Fernando Valenzuela, more impactful than any hitter in the team’s 67-year history in Los Angeles.

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He is not only the greatest Dodger, but also resides at the top of a list of the greatest athletes in Los Angeles history, joining Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant as Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one Los Angeles team and left behind a legacy that indelibly altered their franchise’s culture.

The golden era of Dodger baseball, 11 West Division titles in 12 years, two World Series championships? It is a glory that carries the shade of one man, his teammates following Kershaw’s daily leadership into a place that looks and feels like his unrelenting glare.

The Dodgers are unselfish? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers are accountable? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers have the strength to rise out of what seems like constant adversity? That’s Kershaw.

That he is retiring now is not a surprise. He’s been talking about it for several years. He’s 37, his beard has turned gray, he’s battled all sorts of injuries, and he’s no longer a cornerstone of the rotation.

But that he is ending his career while pitching so well is a huge surprise. His fastball crosses the plate in slow motion, but he is still able to junk it up enough to go 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA including going 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August.

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He can still battle. He can still compete. And while there will be much emotion surrounding his final home start Friday against the San Francisco Giants, he could pitch again during the postseason, making an emergency start or even pitching out of the bullpen.

How great would it be to see him finish strong in October? It is his resilience in October that has defined his career here. Although he has one MVP award, three Cy Young awards, 222 wins and 3,039 strikeouts, those aren’t the numbers that many people will remember.

A 4.49 ERA in 39 postseason appearances, those are the numbers.

That’s the failure that Kershaw endured, that’s the stain that he once felt, those are the results that actually certify his greatness.

Clayton Kershaw receives a standing ovation from fans during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 20. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The St. Louis Cardinals shelled him. The Houston Astros cheated him. The Washington Nationals rocked him. And two years ago, in his most recent postseason start, gritting through a severely injured shoulder that should have kept him off the mound, the Arizona Diamondbacks shelled him for six runs before he could get two outs.

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Yet he never complained about the injury. He never made excuses for anything. He never griped that he was pitching on short rest, or pitching with a bum arm, or pitching with a terrible offense and an untrustworthy bullpen.

He kept imploding in the postseason, yet he kept coming back, year after year after year. He never let his failures own him, he never let them even slow him, until he finally overcame his curses by going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in a 2020 World Series run that ended with a championship win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

When the Dodgers clinched that title, Kershaw was seen staring up into the heavens, thankful that redemption was finally his. He was injured last year and didn’t pitch in the postseason, but he was part of that team nonetheless, giving him two titles that all but fulfilled his career.

He had one more personal goal, though, and he reached it this summer by becoming only the 20th player to record 3,000 strikeouts.

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After that game, a win over the Chicago White Sox in early July, the stoic Kershaw finally acknowledged the chills of spending his entire career with one team, and the impact of his journey.

Read more: ‘A baseball legend.’ Clayton Kershaw announces retirement after 18 seasons with Dodgers

“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” Kershaw said that night. “It’s just kind of something that happened. Over time, I think as you get older, and you appreciate one organization a little bit more — the Dodgers have stuck with me too. It hasn’t been all roses. I know that. There’s just a lot of mutual respect, I think. I’m super grateful now, looking back. To say that I’ve spent my whole career here and I will spend my whole career here — I have a lot more appreciation for it now.”

The appreciation is mutual, and Kershaw will surely hear it in these final days.

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The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building amid a farewell roar that will live here forever.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.