Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax
Walter Sobchak
los angeles dodger’s pitching great clayton kershaw’s career has always been in the shadow of a a greater than life legend. his hall of fame career will always be compared to another dodger hall of fame southpaw, sandy koufax.
sandy koufax’s phoenix-like career was defined by short and spectacular period of dominance. he, like princess diana, james dean, marilyn monroe, jim morrison and jimmy hendrix, had his greatness frozen in time. koufax’s brightness shines without fans having to witness the cruelty of the fading star. an arthritic arm forced early retirement.
clayton kershaw’s legendary shadow was two-fold. while koufax’s on the field accomplishments were great, his religious stance made him a cultural icon. he, like many dodger players, have been at forefront of major social issues. jackie robinson tackled civil rights; don newcombe battled substance abuse and recovery, and roy campanella confronted living of fulfilling life post a profound disability. sandy koufax’s foray outside of the diamond was his decision not to pitch a world series game that was set on the jewish holiday of yom kippur. there are many people who do not know of mr. koufax’s amazing stats or his world series win when he pitched a world series game with an injured arm and with only a fastball to throw yet they know that he sat out of a game in honor of the holiest jewish holiday.
like koufax, clayton kershaw, over his career, has been filled with extensive amounts of outstanding pitching. [mr. koufax even served as a mentor. espn.com] beyond the regular season, mr. kershaw has had some post-season success with multiple world series appearances. his resume and his continued pitching at a high level despite back problems evidences that the declarations of him being a once in a generation talent were spot on. with recent events, mr. kershaw has struck a note on a controversial social issue. he courageously voiced his displeasure concerning his team the dodgers. he expressed his opinion concerning the dodgers honoring an organization during a pride day that makes a mockery of the catholic faith. the sisters of perpetual indulgence – an lgbtq+ organization which dresses as nuns and is viewed as blasphemous- are slated to receive a “community hero award.” [in essence, the dodgers have been accused of endorsing bigotry towards catholics.]
in response to the problem, it is reported that mr. kershawspoke out. mr. kershaw stated “i don’t agree with making fun of other people’s religions, it has nothing to do with anything other than that. i just don’t think that, no matter what religion you are, you should make fun of somebody else’s religion. so that’s something that i definitely don’t agree with.” in response, he has gotten the dodgers to move up and announced the special day called christian faith and family day. the western news journal
kershaw said the team’s christian event is “our opportunity to be able to kind of share our testimony of what we believe in and why we believe in it, and how that affects our performance on the field.” he noted that “as a follower of christ, we’re supposed to love everybody well.” he said “for us, we felt like the best thing to do in response was, instead of maybe making a statement condemning or anything like that, would be just to instead try to show what we do support, as opposed to maybe what we don’t. and that was jesus. so to make christian faith day our response is what we felt like was the best decision.” he said that “i think in these situations, instead of maybe criticizing or trying to find something wrong with a group, it’s better just to focus on what you do believe in…for me, that’s jesus. so i think that was our best response.” the western news journal
in sum, at a time when one’s faith is being challenged, mr. kershaw, like mr. koufax, showed the courage to make a cultural strike. in the decades to come, some households and children will admire mr. kershaw for what he meant for off of the field as much as his accomplishments upon it.
be well!!
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