Authors: Molly Knight
Go to work around one:
This is for games that begin at seven o’clock. Almost every weekday game at Dodger Stadium begins at 7:10. Saturday night games begin an hour earlier, and Sunday games start at 1:10.
Kershaw had taken another girl to the homecoming dance:
Interview with Clayton Kershaw on January 15, 2014.
Kershaw had been MLB’s ERA champ at age twenty-three:
In 2011 he posted a 2.28 ERA; in 2012 he went 2.53.
two of the nastiest pitches:
The opinion of most hitters in the National League.
men who were paid millions of dollars a year:
The average MLB salary in 2013 was $3.3 million. It shot up to $3.8 million in 2014.
public enemy number one:
During a spring training game against the Red Sox in March 2008, Kershaw threw a curveball to Sean Casey that froze him in the batter’s box. Kershaw began walking off the mound toward the Dodgers’ dugout before it even landed in the catcher’s mitt for strike three to end the inning. That’s when Scully nicknamed it.
Before a game at Wrigley Field:
Conversations with Clayton Kershaw and A. J. Ellis.
“You just don’t see that pitch”:
From a question I asked Kirk Gibson in a press conference at Chase Field in Arizona on August 27, 2014.
“You watch tape”:
Interview with Mark Trumbo after he faced Clayton Kershaw at Chase Field in Arizona on August 27, 2014.
Close approached the Dodgers:
From a person with knowledge of the deal.
when he tried to imagine his life beyond thirty:
Interview with Clayton Kershaw on January 15, 2014.
traded a young Pedro Martinez:
What a mistake! As a twenty- and twenty-one-year-old he pitched 115 innings for the Dodgers and struck out 127 while posting a 2.58 ERA. He went on to become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history.
“We’re like the pit crew”:
Interview with A. J. Ellis on April 1, 2013.
“I don’t need the extra minute”:
Interview with Clayton Kershaw on January 15, 2014.
Clayton Kershaw was born:
Everything in this section that is not already common knowledge can be attributed to the interview I did with Clayton Kershaw on January 15, 2014.
a consolation prize for their 2005 season:
The Dodgers went 71-91 in 2005. Dodger fans were so loyal that the club still led the NL in attendance that year, and the following year.
“I totally thought I was going to the Tigers”:
I asked both Clayton Kershaw and Logan White about this story, and they confirmed the facts. It was originally reported by Bill Shaikin on May 18, 2013, in the
Los Angeles Times
, “Clayton Kershaw Is a Dodgers Star Now but It Almost Didn’t Happen.”
“She took on some pretty serious debt”:
Interview with Clayton Kershaw on January 15, 2014.
Lincecum helped the Giants win World Series:
They had last won the World Series in 1954.
the Giants gave the opening day start to Matt Cain:
Matt Cain had been an all-star in 2011 and 2012, posting ERAs of 2.88 and 2.79, respectively. In 2011 he finished eighth in the NL in ERA; in 2012 he finished fourth in the NL in ERA.
It seemed as though every opposing pitcher:
This is the opinion of many Dodger players who struggled to answer why the club gave him such lousy run support. In 2012 the Dodgers scored an average of 3.94 runs in games Kershaw started. The Cardinals’ Lance Lynn, on the other hand, got the most support, with 5.90 runs a game that season. In 2013 the Dodgers’ offense was even worse with Kershaw on the mound, scoring 3.79 runs a game. The same offense scored 4.11 runs on average for Zack Greinke and 4.70 runs for Hyun-Jin Ryu.
“I went up there swinging at the first pitch”:
Interview with Kershaw after the game on April 1, 2013.
Johnson turned and high-fived Mark Walter:
This was shown on television.
The next day, Kershaw was shagging balls on the warning track:
Story told to me by a person in the room.
CHAPTER 4: IT’S TIME FOR DONNIE BASEBALL
The new owner’s bunker had been open for two business days:
It was built in the off-season.
Baseball was serious business for him:
An opposing catcher told me that whenever he tried to make small talk with Ellis in the batter’s box, the second baseman would ignore him, annoyed that he had to retrain his focus. He could not have been more different off the field, and is described by teammates as one of the nicest men ever to put on a major-league uniform.
Sellers was sent to the minors weeks later:
Ramirez returned on June 2. Sellers played his last game for the Dodgers on June 10.
“He thanked him for being a professional”:
Postgame interview with Ned Colletti on October 7, 2013.
“Coming over here I was worried about making friends”:
Postgame interview with Hyun-Jin Ryu on October 7, 2013.
“I see the ball, I hit the ball”:
Interview with Juan Uribe on September 24, 2013.
“He’s the best teammate I ever played with”:
Interview with Matt Kemp on October 7, 2013.
his wife, Cindy, had supported their family:
From a conversation with Cindy Ellis on July 1, 2014.
“There’s no worse feeling than taking a bad swing”:
Interview with A. J. Ellis, September 5, 2014.
everyone knew it was only a matter of time:
Beckett made eight starts for the Dodgers, before succumbing to injury on May 13. He had surgery to alleviate a pinched nerve in his neck, and didn’t pitch again in 2013. He finished the season with a 5.19 ERA in 43.1 innings. He was paid $15.75 million.
Hitters had no trouble:
Despite being a fly-ball pitcher, Ted Lilly enjoyed success during a fifteen-year career, until batters started hitting too many fly balls that weren’t caught. He gave up four home runs in just twenty-three innings of work in 2013, with a 5.09 ERA.
the time bomb in his arm ticked louder than most:
Rodriguez is known for having a funky arm delivery that hides the ball from hitters longer than
usual. However, the low arm slot from which he throws has given him trouble in his young career. After an excellent 2012 rookie season he struggled in the second half of 2013 and made only nineteen appearances in 2014.
visa issues:
Belisario had trouble gaining admittance into the United States for spring training, year after year, and would often report late. In February 2011 he disclosed that his visa problems stemmed from his testing positive for cocaine in the past.
Only four of them were drafted by the Dodgers:
The four were Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, Paco Rodriguez, and A. J. Ellis.
signed as international prospects:
Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenley Jansen.
to paraphrase Dodger legend Don Drysdale:
After his Hall of Fame playing career, Drysdale went on to become a broadcaster for the Dodgers. His obituary noted that he had become critical of modern-day players. “You have to wonder when two players of different teams have the same agent,” he said. “Who are these players really loyal to, the agent or their teams? You don’t see 15 guys going out for a beer anymore. You see 24 guys living in 24 different single rooms on the road, and in some instances, taking 24 different cabs to the stadium.” From “Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame Pitcher, Dies at 56,” by Richard D. Lyons,
New York Times,
July 5, 1993.
“ ‘Getting along’ is probably not the right way to say it”:
Interview with Stan Kasten on July 15, 2014.
“It’s not the greatest working environment when Ned’s around”:
The opinion of multiple players, past and present.
Only nineteen guys across both leagues:
A list of all MLB players who made at least $20 million in 2013 (
USA Today
):
1. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees, $29 million
2. Cliff Lee, Phillies, $25 million
3. Johan Santana, Mets, $24.6 million
4. Mark Teixeira, Yankees, $23.1 million
5. Prince Fielder, Tigers, $23 million
6. Joe Mauer, Twins, $23 million
7. C.C. Sabathia, Yankees, $23 million
8. Tim Lincecum, Giants, $22.25 million
9.
Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers, $21.85 million
10.
Zack Greinke, Dodgers, $21 million
11. Vernon Wells, Yankees, $21 million
12. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers, $21 million
13. Matt Cain, Giants, $20.83 million
14. Cole Hamels, Phillies, $20.5 million
15.
Matt Kemp, Dodgers, $20.25 million
16. Justin Verlander, Tigers, $20.1 million
17. Roy Halladay, Phillies, $20 million
18. Barry Zito, Giants, $20 million
19.
Carl Crawford, Dodgers, $20 million
20. Ryan Howard, Phillies, $20 million
“We had a lot of guys making less money”:
Interview with Don Mattingly on August 27, 2014, at Chase Field in Arizona.
“They need to be self-motivated”:
Ibid.
“He hardly ever gets mad”:
Interview with Preston Mattingly, August 1, 2014.
“Everybody always thinks it was my back”:
From a story by Ramona Shelburne for
ESPN.com
Los Angeles, “Don Mattingly: The Manager, the Dad,” on June 16, 2012.
“Before he took the job he asked us”:
Interview with Preston Mattingly, August 16, 2014.
“I liked helping guys”:
Interview with Don Mattingly on August 27, 2014.
Zack Greinke believed:
Interview with Zack Greinke on August 31, 2013.
Colletti signed so many broken former closers:
The 2014 bullpen featured Brandon League, Brian Wilson, and Chris Perez, among others. Each was given a multimillion-dollar contract years after being dropped from the closer role at his previous club.
While minor on the surface:
When McGwire’s Dodgers faced St. Louis in the NLCS, some within the Cardinals organization thought McGwire’s knowledge of their hitters’ strengths and weaknesses gave Los Angeles a distinct advantage.
Hillman assumed:
I heard this from more than one player.
a mean Excel sheet:
Hillman made gorgeous color-coded charts to show where and when hitters and pitchers were supposed to be during spring training, which were prominently displayed in the Dodgers’ clubhouse.
“I’ve never been around someone”:
Hillman said this at the Dodgers’ Faith and Family Night on July 27, 2013, after a game at Dodger Stadium.
Greinke had no energy for suffering fools:
From an article written by Tom Hardricourt in the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
, “Getting to Know Zack
Greinke,” February 22, 2011. Greinke said this about speaking to reporters: “Every day I come to the park and want to get focused on my start, and then random people come and waste my time talking every day. It takes eight minutes to get a real question out because they’re like buttering me up. Then they get to the question and it’s a stupid question. So it’s a waste of 10 minutes, and in that 10-minute time I don’t get to do what I needed to do. The main reason is it gets rid of all the ‘eyewash’ comments from reporters and I actually get to focus on what needs to be focused on instead of wasting energy on other stuff.”
exchanged a few polite text messages:
Interview with A. J. Ellis on April, 1, 2013.
“Well, the first thing I’d do is trade you”:
Interview with A. J. Ellis on August 1, 2013.
Ellis wondered what the hell he was talking about:
Interview with A. J. Ellis on July 29, 2014.
was named Gatorade’s:
Greinke earned the award given to the nation’s top prep baseball player in 2002; Kershaw earned it in 2006. Other players who have won the award include Gary Sheffield (1986), Alex Rodriguez (1993), and Justin Upton (2005).
reminded Colletti of Greg Maddux:
Colletti said this on the Dodgers broadcast on September 2, 2013, talking to Charley Steiner and Rick Monday. He said it after Greinke stole the base, noting that Greinke was a thinking man, an excellent fielder, and swung a good bat. “He finds ways to help you win even without pitching,” said Colletti.
“They didn’t tell me not to”:
Spoken to reporters (including me) after a home game against the Padres on September 1, 2013.
“I try too hard and it backfires”:
Interview with Zack Greinke on August 31, 2013.
On the mound, he was fine:
On February 15, 2013, Greinke addressed a pack of reporters at the Dodgers’ spring training facility and said: “[My anxiety] never really bothered me on the mound . . . but I was raised to do what you enjoy doing, whether you are making several hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, or $30,000 per year. That was my thought, why am I putting myself through torture when I didn’t really want to do it? I mean, I enjoyed playing but everything else that went with it I didn’t.”
He devoured self-help books with little results:
“It hasn’t been hard since I started taking the medicine. I don’t know if I got lucky, or what,”
Greinke said. “I wish I knew about it before. I didn’t know there was something for it. I used to read self-help books trying to make myself better.” From a February 15, 2013, news conference with reporters.