ATLANTA –– Clayton Kershaw made the familiar walk from the team bus to the clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon, entering a visiting stadium as he’d done thousands of times before.
Only this time, the retired left-hander kept on going, passing right by the Dodgers’ locker room at Truist Park en route to –– for what was one day at least –– his new workplace in the broadcast booth high above the field.
Eighteen years removed from his big-league debut as a player, Kershaw made his debut as a broadcast color analyst during the Dodgers’ Tuesday night game on SportsNet LA.
He wore a suit in place of a jersey. He held a mic instead of a ball. And with play-by-play man Joe Davis by his side as his new TV battery-mate, he called the full nine innings in a one-day cameo that could, just maybe, portend a new career path for the future Hall of Famer.
“Honestly, the whole experience, I really had a good time with it,” Kershaw told the California Post on Wednesday morning. “It was really fun.”
Having concluded his iconic playing career with a third World Series last season, the 38-year-old Kershaw is still deciding what his future might hold.
He has spent most of this summer being a dad, at home in Texas with his wife, Ellen, and their five kids. He has also taken up a role as a special assistant to the Dodgers’ front office, helping out this year in player development and scouting-related duties.
Broadcasting, however, has been Kershaw’s most visible post-retirement endeavor.
He agreed to a deal with NBC Sports this winter to be part of its newly-acquired MLB coverage. He worked multiple Dodgers games earlier this season as a dugout-side commentator on the network’s national broadcasts.
But then came this week’s series, in which the Dodgers offered him a chance to be the primary color analyst for their Tuesday-night opener against the Braves in Atlanta.
“In order to really know if you enjoy it, you need to be in the booth,” he said. “So I started thinking about that more. And obviously working with Joe is a huge draw. He’s the best there is. So finding a game that’s regional, not a national broadcast, so you can get your feet wet and have somebody that’s incredible at their job help you through it, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”
Kershaw’s call received largely rave reviews from Dodger fans, as he wove in his playing experience and pitching knowledge throughout the team’s 4-3 loss.
He was particularly adept at breaking down at-bats, describing everything from the challenges Mookie Betts posed at the plate in the first inning (“Mookie’s always been a low-ball hitter in my book,” he said, “so for me, I would try to stay away from him as best I could”) to how Jack Dreyer attacked batters in the seventh (“What I wouldn’t do is throw something out over the plate,” he noted after Dreyer put Sean Murphy in a two-strike hole, adding, “I would stick up-and-in or down-and-in right here.”)
He recalled stories from his decorated 18-year career, including a piece of wisdom Greg Maddux gave him as a rookie back in 2008: “What he said about 2-2 and 3-2 counts is, ‘Whatever you throw 2-2, you better have the conviction to throw it 3-2’ … Because you can’t come back [with a] fastball and give him a free cookie.”
At several points, the once fiery mound presence even dropped in a few quick-witted jokes.
“Freddie truck-sticked him,” he said with a laugh after a first-inning collision between first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Hunter Feduccia on a pop-up.
“This is how I used to hit,” he quipped while analyzing Mauricio Dubón’s protective two-strike approach later in the frame.
Kershaw admitted he had some nerves going into the game, especially with an opening on-camera segment that had to stick within a strict one-minute time slot.
“But then, when you’re just watching a baseball game and talking about it, that’s what I love to do,” he said. “I love watching baseball and talking baseball, especially when it’s not about me. That’s the stuff that I really, really enjoyed, and felt like as the game went on, I got a little more comfortable with that.”
In his prime years as a pitcher, Kershaw didn’t exactly seem like a future broadcasting star in the making.
He was often terse in his postgame media availabilities. He was always wary of the spotlight that came with being an MVP winner and three-time Cy Young Award recipient.
“Honestly, when I was playing, I never wanted to speak to the media or do anything like that,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to be like a jerk about it. I just didn’t like talking about myself more than I had to. I didn’t enjoy that side of it.”
In his later years with the Dodgers, though, some of his harsher edges began to soften.
Rarely was that more clear than during occasional in-game interview spots on SNLA broadcasts, when (on his non-start days) Kershaw would throw on a headset in the dugout and describe the action unfolding in front of him.
“I think a lot of people misconstrued [me] for like, ‘Oh, he’s just not a talker. He doesn’t want to do it,’” Kershaw said. “But, I mean, that’s pretty far from the truth. I really love baseball, and I love talking about the game. So the natural fit is to be able to do that in broadcasting. I thought about that.”
Whether Kershaw pursues a full-time broadcasting job at some point is something he still hasn’t decided. He noted the time and travel commitments it would require. He also expressed how much he enjoys still “being a part of a team” through his special assistant role with the Dodgers.
“All to say, I don’t really know,” he said. “But I’m glad I’m getting an opportunity to try a bunch of stuff right now.”
What is clear: Kershaw won’t be changing his down-to-earth persona for any TV gig.
When asked if he had a style in mind as a broadcaster, he answered simply: “I don’t know about all that.”
“I was just talking about baseball, and hopefully people like hearing me talk about it,” he continued. “And if they don’t, they can tell me that too. It’s fine. I think that’s the great thing about this, is it’s not like winning or losing.”
That didn’t mean Kershaw –– ever the competitor –– didn’t have self-critiques about his broadcasting debut on Tuesday.
“I guessed wrong a lot last night on pitches and different stuff,” he pointed out.
But even there, Kershaw showed promise, such as when he accurately predicted Braves starter Bryce Elder to throw an outside changeup to Tommy Edman in the second inning, inducing what was nearly a double-play grounder.
“I kind of guessed right on that one,” he joked. “So, I mean, there’s a few things that I kind of got right, which is always good.”
After all, he added after night No. 1 in the broadcast booth, “it’s kind of your job to be able to know what’s going on.”
