FT Breaking News: Clayton Kershaw will retire following 2025 season

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Eric, an interesting day today around Major League Baseball. I knew it was going to happen. I was kind of hoping it never did. But next stop Cooperstown for Clayton Kershaw. But Kersh announced this afternoon at Dodger Stadium that he is in fact hanging it up after eighteen seasons as a Los Angeles Dodger. He is retiring at the end of the year. I've had the pleasure of covering Clayton as a Dodger almost his entire career. But what is a career it has been, Eric, what are your thoughts about Kersh saying? Okay, that's enough.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: First, congratulations with Clayton Kershaw. Second lock in, the Dodgers are going to win the World Series? No way, A superstar, a first ballot should be unanimous. Hall of Fame pitcher retires and announces it one week, one and a half weeks left in the season and their team doesn't win the World Series, get it. You don't play for the Gipper, or you don't do it like. This guy's still producing. This guy's still producing on a big league level. And for him to announce this, we really like forget how dominant he was because right now he's still been super uber successful. Yes, he hasn't had a thirty two start season in a little bit, but he's never not gone out there undone. Well, So congratulations Clayton, everything you've earned. You're probably even a better person than you are a player.

00:01:33
Speaker 1: It's funny because that video that we were just watching right there where Clayton just stuck his hands up in the air. Obviously, that was his no hitter in twenty fourteen, and aj Ellis was behind the plate and I was fortunate enough to cover that moment, Eric, And you know how important and how special that is as a backstop when you are the guy behind the dish that's calling the pitches and putting the fingers down for a no hitter. And I remember that I was the second no hitter I had ever covered in my career. And it was cool because it was at home and Ellen Kershaw had come down from the stands. And Clayton and Ellen today as we sit here in twenty twenty five, are about to have their fifth child. They're expecting their fifth child, but at the time in twenty fourteen, they had just found out that they were pregnant with their first and Callie Anne is the first, the first of what is now the Kershaw's four children about to be five, and they are having another girl, so they have bookend girls. But that was such a special moment for the Kershaw family because I remember distinctly Clayton is there. Obviously Ellen comes down, and I just kind of got out of the way because obviously the story is Clayton, and the moment that he shared with Ellen in that moment with all of the fans there at Dodger Stadium was such a special moment. And I certainly thought that, man, every time Clayton Kershaw takes the ball, Eric, and you know this better, having been in this game as long as you have, I felt like every time kirsh took the ball, a no no was in play, right, A no no was a possibility. And the way that he has continued the course of his career over eighteen seasons in one uniform has been so special. And I think Dodger fans, and really baseball fans in general, I think we take for granted how special it has been to witness not only one of the best left handers in the game in our generation, in our time, but one of the best pitchers that this game has ever seen.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: And yes, we can look at all of his Baseball Reference has got a bunch of bold He's got his Cy Young's his you know, just World Series titles, all that stuff. But I go back to a story and I think Chase Outley told me it was two thousand and nine when he was on the Phillies and you know, Dodger Stadium before they renovated. Everything was like a dungeon underneath. It was like a minor league stadium where you're always passing guys, and he was he was walking to the cage, which was on the other side, so you had a sometimes you'd come across Dodgers and Chase out It was affiliate at the time. I think Clayton had two or three years in the big leagues at this point, and he walks by and he sees his guy in a mirror, a full length mirror, and he's going, you know, he's he's doing his thing, and he's looking at the mirror and he's doing his thing. He's looking at the mirror. And one of the coaches from the Dodgers was there at the time too, not doing anything with Clayton, but he was just there hanging out outside there, and he's like, what's he doing? He goes this kid was told that he was tipping, and so he comes out here to this mirror and he does his motion so that he is not ever tipping. Like this is a guy that was dominant already in the game at an early early age, and he was trying to fix the tiny little leaks, the tiny little leaks in something that could allow somebody, Hey, you know what, I need something to be able to get a hit off of Clayton Kershaw, and he wouldn't allow it. And so for me, Chase Utley saying those things and seeing that stuff, that's like a great player complimenting a great player, to see why great players become elite players. Elite players become Hall of famers.

00:05:12
Speaker 1: And I think the competitiveness is one of the things about Clayton Kersha. And you were just talking about it right there, Eric talking about seeing himself and you know, pitching out of the stretch or pitching out of the wind up, or tipping pitches and he's looking at the reverse image of himself in the mirror. But every single time we went to a different ballpark that at the time Clayton had not pitched on before, goes out to the mound, feels the mound, goes out to the outfield wall, does his things kind of like you know, scans the areas taking in the ballpark. He was just such a competitor, and he was the guy that was always the stopper or he was the guy that would always would get you on a winning streak again. And he never took anything for granted. And he still has. I mean, you know, he's still pitching. Like Clayton hasn't passed. He's just announcing his retirement. But he never took anything for granted, and he always put just as much effort. And when he didn't need to write, I mean, he's a certified first ballot Hall of Famer. He didn't have to put in all that work in, day in and day out over the course of eighteen seasons, and he did it anyway. And he's figured out one thing Clayton's never lost. You know, maybe the velocity isn't there right, maybe the curveball isn't exactly as devastating as it used to be. Maybe, you know, the miles per hour aren't there, but the competitiveness has always been there, and that's not anything that has ever been in question for Clayton, and he has been the epitome of what you would hope to be in the same uniform, which I don't think we give enough. I mean, there are very few guys that are the Todd Helton's of the world, the Clayton Kershaws of the world, you know, the Joe Maers of the world. The guy that gets to put on the exact same uniform for the entirety of his career. That's pretty special.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: Took my thunder. That's what I was going to end with, because if we don't talk about it once, we have to talk about it ten times. The fact that he played for the same team the whole time, a guy that you were just saying, how many kids he has at home? Much better? Much better go play in Texas. You get to stay at home. You get to stay at home. The Rangers had interest in him, There was always rumors about that. But you know what, good for the Kershaw family, good for Dodgers organization for saying no, that's not going to happen, and it really doesn't matter. It really ultimately doesn't matter. He would have done the same thing in Texas. But for my baseball tradition, my love of baseball, there's no way I wanted to see Clayton Kershaw in another uniform. And now we get it.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: No doubt about that. You had mentioned the cy Young zeric three times sy Young Award winner twenty fourteen nationally MVP. That is the same year in which he threw that no hit or five ERA titles eleven times. I'll start two time World Series champion and perhaps my friend a third time World Series champion before Clayton Kershaw, number two, one of the best left handers ever to pick up a baseball, has announced his retirement today at Dodgers Stadium