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Speaker 1: Hello, friends. Remember that we designed this show to be

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Speaker 1: evergreen in nature. Our episodes are as relevant and listenable

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Speaker 1: today as they were the day they were released, and

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Speaker 1: so we recommend that you check out our back catalog.

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Speaker 1: Maybe pass it on to some of the casual baseball

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Speaker 1: fans in your life who want to get caught up

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Speaker 1: on some of the season's best storylines as we head

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Speaker 1: into October. We've even heard that we're a good baseball

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Speaker 1: show for people who don't like baseball, who'd have guessed.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 2: Ititch time for Dodger baseball.

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Speaker 1: Friday night in Arizona. It's the first game in a

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Speaker 1: huge series against our division rivals, the Diamondbacks, who are

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Speaker 1: just four behind us in the National League West.

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Speaker 2: Four And you know what, the Dodgers need to win

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Speaker 2: this series.

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Speaker 3: Because they don't want to end up in a tie

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Speaker 3: and have the Arizona win the series, they would win

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Speaker 3: the West.

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Speaker 1: It's Kershaw Day.

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Speaker 2: Wow, it's Clayton Kershaw makes his forty fifth regular season

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Speaker 2: start against the Diamondbacks. Words in strike one to Perdomo and.

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Speaker 1: In the first inning, Clayton Kershaw is battling Perdomo la field.

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Speaker 2: That's gonna get to the loved under stand right there, daddy. Yes,

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Speaker 2: he win one two with the one a month and

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Speaker 2: it's Clayton going away from his strength. That's okay.

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Speaker 1: We've seen Kersh have rough innings and come back out

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Speaker 1: and settle in and cruise. He's known for that. But

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Speaker 1: then Corbyn.

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Speaker 2: Carroll leads off his inning against Clayton Kershaw.

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Speaker 1: First pitch of the second inning.

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Speaker 2: Box deep jo line towards the poor.

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Speaker 1: Something strange and troubling happens.

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Speaker 2: It's not a good sign.

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Speaker 1: After a no doubt home run off the bat of

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Speaker 1: Corbyn Carroll on a hanging curveball, and just the top

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Speaker 1: of the second with nobody out, Kersh just unceremoniously walks

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Speaker 1: off the mound.

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Speaker 2: Her Shaw is walking off the mound.

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Speaker 1: Head down, not making eye contact with anybody, into the dugout,

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Speaker 1: past his teammates, and in an instant disappearing into the

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Speaker 1: darkened tunnel of the visiting clubhouse.

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Speaker 2: Ohd you've breasted and your heart breaks.

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Speaker 1: Exiting the game in just the second inning with a lead.

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Speaker 1: You know something is wrong? Is it his shoulder? His elbow?

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Speaker 2: No signs other than them being removed. What possibly could

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Speaker 2: be heard.

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Speaker 1: When Dave Roberts came out to take the ball. He

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Speaker 1: and Kershaw didn't even exchange any words. Kersh just walked

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Speaker 1: right off, and I remember thinking I might have just

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Speaker 1: watched Clayton Kershaw throw the last pitch of his Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame career. Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream, a documentary

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Speaker 1: about the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season, made in real

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Speaker 1: time as the season unfolds. I'm Richard Parks, the Third,

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Speaker 1: I'm a writer, and I'm a lifelong Dodger fan. Today's episode,

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Speaker 1: Kershaw's Complication.

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Speaker 3: Clayton Kershaw with a regular six and two Want to

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Speaker 3: Know against the Rockies this year eleven and five.

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Speaker 1: Lifetime Clayton Edward Kershaw, if you don't already know, is

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Speaker 1: one of the best pitchers of all time. He is

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Speaker 1: a first ballot Hall of Famer, meaning he's so accomplished

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Speaker 1: and so respected in this sport that, even though he's

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Speaker 1: still playing, his ticket to the most venerated club in

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Speaker 1: baseball is already punched. He's a three time cy Young

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Speaker 1: Award winner, he's the only National League pitcher to win

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Speaker 1: the MVP in fifty years, and he has a World

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Speaker 1: Series ring ring singular. This will become an important distinction.

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Speaker 4: I just got a lot of emotions right now, and

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Speaker 4: it's just a special feeling. Man World Series Champs. They

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Speaker 4: can't take that away.

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Speaker 1: We're sure to see a Clayton Kershaw statue in the

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Speaker 1: center field plaza at Dodger Stadium someday soon, next to

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Speaker 1: Jackie Robinson and Sandy Kofax. And my guess is the

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Speaker 1: statue will be him in his signature pose, out of

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Speaker 1: the stretch, towing the rubber, with a man on his arm,

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Speaker 1: stretching straight up above him, holding the ball in his mitt,

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Speaker 1: concealing his grip on his four seam fastball, or is

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Speaker 1: it that beautiful twelve to six curve. Kershaw made his

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Speaker 1: debut as a Dodger a few months before Barack Obama

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Speaker 1: took office. While I'm generally allergic to the hyperbole of

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Speaker 1: this phrase, I'll make an exception here. Clayton Kershaw is

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Speaker 1: a living legend, and so for all of those years

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Speaker 1: since two thousand and eight, for me, that was most

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Speaker 1: of my twenties and all of my thirties. When Kersh

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Speaker 1: takes the mound in LA, it's Kershaw Day. People celebrate

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Speaker 1: and we blast his walkout song We Are Young by

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Speaker 1: Fun featuring Janelle Monet. Tonight we are Young, So let's

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Speaker 1: set the night on fire. We can burn brighter than

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Speaker 1: the sun.

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Speaker 3: It's a high curveball that gets into the stry John B.

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Speaker 2: Shtrike.

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Speaker 4: Wait wait, wait, wait.

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Speaker 1: But Kersh is no longer young, not for baseball at least.

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Speaker 1: He is thirty six, and he's coming off of the

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Speaker 1: first major surgery of his career on his left shoulder.

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Speaker 1: So this is a comeback season for Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw's

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Speaker 1: done it all. He is, of course, a multi millionaire

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Speaker 1: many times over, and his adoring wife and four young

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Speaker 1: children are back home in Texas, and yet he is

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Speaker 1: still playing baseball. Why he doesn't need the money. There

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Speaker 1: isn't really anything left for him to accomplish. He has

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Speaker 1: the respect and admiration of the fans, the media, his

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Speaker 1: peers in baseball. So why why? I've got a few

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Speaker 1: ideas why And that's why you're listening to this year podcast.

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Speaker 1: In my mind, it all relates to how things end.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of endings, the baseball season famously ends in October,

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Speaker 1: and the post season is the one area where Clayton

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Speaker 1: Kershaw has historically struggled. So as Kershaw walked off the

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Speaker 1: mound on Friday due to some uncertain ailment after a

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Speaker 1: rough start against the d Backs, I'm sure that, like me,

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Speaker 1: every other Dodger fan was flashing back to last year's nlds.

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Speaker 3: Auspeednich laced on the left cutter field outmit on the run,

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Speaker 3: misjudged it, and it pops out of his club.

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Speaker 1: When Kersh couldn't get through a single inning against this

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Speaker 1: Diamondbacks team, We'll hit through.

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Speaker 3: The metal Martea route third. He's going to score and

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Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks jump in front line to left of base

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Speaker 3: at this fourteenth pitch of this inning, high fly ball

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Speaker 3: to deep leaf field. Forget about it.

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Speaker 5: It's gone a disastrous start for Clayton Kershaw.

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Speaker 1: This was Kershaw's only postseason start last year, and in

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Speaker 1: a postseason career already held up to scrutiny, it was

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Speaker 1: his worst outing by far. The Dodgers were coming into

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Speaker 1: this series hot. We'd won one hundred games and finished

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Speaker 1: first in the NL West during the regular season with

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Speaker 1: Kersh pitching one hundred and thirty innings with the two

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Speaker 1: forty six ERA. But then we were swept by the

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Speaker 1: d Backs, who were only even in the postseason as

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Speaker 1: a wild card. We would find out later that kersh

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Speaker 1: was playing hurt, that the shoulder had been bugging him

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Speaker 1: all season, a season that wasn't advertised to be his last.

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Speaker 1: But also we didn't know if he was going to

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Speaker 1: come back for another one, and so this start a

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Speaker 1: year ago could have been Kershaw's swan song in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: And so you understand why I'm thinking about how things end.

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Speaker 4: Especially after the way last season ended. I didn't want

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Speaker 4: to go out like.

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Speaker 1: That, even if you're not a Dodger fan, to see

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Speaker 1: one of the greatest pitchers of all time and a

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Speaker 1: very likable, good person exit the game for good under

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Speaker 1: a cloud of ignominy, it just doesn't play. And that's

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Speaker 1: why Kershaw came back this year, why he decided to

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Speaker 1: have a shoulder surgery in the off season and rehab.

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Speaker 3: Clayton Kershaw announced on Instagram that he's undergone surgery.

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Speaker 2: On his rolling shoulder. Clayton is decided he wants to

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Speaker 2: play baseball again. We have decided if he needs to

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Speaker 2: get surgery.

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Speaker 6: If he does want.

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Speaker 1: To play, it would be a massive physical and mental

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Speaker 1: undertaking to recover and come back for twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Nobody expected that he would come back to peak form,

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Speaker 1: knowing that his basic tools like his velocity, would be reduced.

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Speaker 4: Tell me what danna say?

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Speaker 2: Kershaw?

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Speaker 1: Oh? How excited was I that Kersh decided to come

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Speaker 1: back and chase another Dodgers championship in twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 2: But in the meantime time I'm.

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Speaker 1: Going down to Dodger Stadium to watch Clayton Kershaw pitch.

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Speaker 1: You might remember that I wrote and produced an entire

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Speaker 1: podcast episode about it, let Us Cry River and the Rookies,

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Speaker 1: released on July twenty fifth. Check out our back catalog

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Speaker 1: Smash that like button?

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Speaker 2: What did you just say? Kershaw? Day twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 2: Baby Beat?

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Speaker 1: I made sure that I was at the ballpark for

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Speaker 1: his first start coming back.

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Speaker 6: How you feeling about it?

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Speaker 1: Company to man with my partner in crime, Wesley Avula,

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Speaker 1: and Kershaw looked really good that day. He had been

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Speaker 1: topping out around eighty nine miles per hour in his

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Speaker 1: rehab starts, but at Dodger Stadium his first start back,

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Speaker 1: Kersh was hitting ninety one and he was striking guys out,

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Speaker 1: mixing his slider in with his curveball along with locating

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Speaker 1: that fastball.

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Speaker 2: I mean, he's gonna give up some it. Sometimes you

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Speaker 2: need to settle in.

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Speaker 4: But oh no, oh good bounce back and a latinning

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Speaker 4: hope do you make it this?

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Speaker 2: You know, at least sixth inning, pretty good six.

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Speaker 1: Yet not only had he come back physically from his surgery,

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Speaker 1: but he was making adjustments he was pitching. To paraphrase

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Speaker 1: Charles Darwin, it's not the best to survive, it's the

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Speaker 1: most adaptable. As Kershaw showed flashes of his former greatness

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Speaker 1: in his starts since coming back in July, the dream

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Speaker 1: was alive that we would see this Dodger icon once

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Speaker 1: again pitch in the postseason and this time dominate. But

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Speaker 1: it's not a good sign back to Arizona. On Friday,

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Speaker 1: when Kershaw walks off the mound suddenly, unceremoniously after giving

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Speaker 1: up a home run to Corby and Carroll, I'm thinking,

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Speaker 1: is it his elbow? Will he need Tommy Johnson? That's

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Speaker 1: something he probably couldn't come back from.

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Speaker 2: Don't know signs what possibly did he hearn?

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Speaker 1: And then the announcement came on the broadcast. Kersh left

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Speaker 1: the game because of pain in his big left toe.

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Speaker 1: It's a bone spurt, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts elaborated in

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Speaker 1: a postgame interview.

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Speaker 6: It's obviously not good. There's swelling, there's pain, you know.

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Speaker 6: So he's doing everything he can.

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Speaker 1: The left big toe. That is the toe that tows

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Speaker 1: the rubber that the body pushes off of, that wields

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Speaker 1: the arm that whips over the shoulder and throws the pitch.

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Speaker 1: The exact point of pressure when Kershaw pushes off the mound,

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Speaker 1: all six four two and twenty five pounds of him.

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Speaker 6: You know, he had nothing no legs today obviously, and

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Speaker 6: then you start worrying about how it could affect his arm,

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Speaker 6: and so there was just no other alternative but to

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Speaker 6: take him on that second inning after the Carol.

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Speaker 1: At bat, Clayton, we were told, you exit the game

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Speaker 1: with pain in your big toe.

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Speaker 3: Is that something you've been dealing with?

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Speaker 1: And I guess kind of what happened there in that moment.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I just couldn't really push off. You know, it's

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Speaker 4: frustrating when you know everything else seems to be feeling great,

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Speaker 4: but you know, I just no matter what I did,

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Speaker 4: I couldn't find like a comfortable way to push off

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Speaker 4: on my toe, so you know, it's super frustrating. Obviously

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Speaker 4: put the team in a really tough spot, you know,

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Speaker 4: having the bullpen to cover eight.

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Speaker 1: Innings, playing through pain, taking responsibility for his part in

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Speaker 1: front of his locker after the game, standing there thinking,

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Speaker 1: as we all are, let this not be the way

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Speaker 1: I go out. On Saturday, the day after his start,

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Speaker 1: Kershaw was placed on the injured list, and on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: Dave Roberts told the media that Kershaw would need to

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Speaker 1: wear a boot. That same day, images a fan posted

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Speaker 1: to Twitter showed Kershaw in the bullpen, his left knee

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Speaker 1: up on a folding chair to keep the pressure off

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Speaker 1: his foot, working on his upper body delivery, staying in shape.

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Speaker 1: And then there are the images of Kershaw in the

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Speaker 1: dugout during the rest of the series in Arizona after

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Speaker 1: his start, top of the steps, leaning over the railing,

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Speaker 1: huge smile, cheering on his teammates, soaking it up as

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Speaker 1: showhey steals another base, living in the moment to the max,

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Speaker 1: fully present as we took three out of four from

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Speaker 1: our division rivals, why is he still out there? He

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Speaker 1: came back this year to write a new ending to

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Speaker 1: his own story, the proper ending for this chapter in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles Dodgers' history, the proper ending to this historic

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Speaker 1: career for this historic player. It's not a cy Young season,

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Speaker 1: it's not an MVP season. It's not three hundred strikeouts

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Speaker 1: or a sub to er. It's a World Series championship

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Speaker 1: for the Los Angeles Dodgers in twenty twenty four. So

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Speaker 1: I have the feeling we haven't seen the last of

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Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw. And I've got a feeling that the way

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Speaker 1: that this story ends is with those long, legendary arms

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Speaker 1: stretching to the sky as they have so many times,

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Speaker 1: but they're not holding a glove and a ball. They're

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Speaker 1: holding a trophy. And when you look a little closer,

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Speaker 1: there isn't just one World Series ring. There's rings plural,

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Speaker 1: And that's the moment we'll know it's time for Kersh

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Speaker 1: to go. Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by

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Speaker 1: me Richard Parksid. This episode was story edited by Caitlin

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Speaker 1: Esh and Jordan Bass. Original music in this episode by

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Snipes. If you like Dodger Blue Dream, please rate

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Speaker 1: and review the show on Apple Podcasts or however you can,

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Speaker 1: and if you can't do that. Please share the show

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Speaker 1: with one friend today. Thanks so much for listening. Until

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Speaker 1: next time,