Throughout much of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw has faced endless comparisons to Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. The two left-handers have become close and share a similarity as being regarded as the best pitchers of their generation.
Furthermore, Kershaw and Koufax both became renowned in large part due to a dominant curveball. That was among the topics Kershaw discussed with former teammate Ross Stripling on his new podcast, “GOATS: On the Bump.”
Kershaw marveled at the size Koufax’s hands and how that lent to his ability to throw multiple versions of a curveball. The future Hall of Famer recalled needing to explain to Koufax how he couldn’t simply throw his curve in the same fashion:
“Have you ever seen Sandy wrap his hands around a baseball? He’s like, ‘Hey, you should really try this with your curveball.’ And his middle finger and thumb are literally touching on the other side of the baseball. I’m like, ‘Sandy, I can’t do that. My hands are normal size. I can’t do that.’ That big of a hand can make a curveball do some crazy things.
“So he would say, ‘I get my curveball to break in two directions. I’m like, ‘What does that mean?’ He said, ‘Sometimes, I take my curveball and try to over rotate it to make it break away from a right-handed batter. And when I throw my normal one, I can break it in to a right-handed batter.’ I was like, ‘Sandy, nobody can do that.’
“The way that he talks about his curveball and manipulated his curveball is truly only what Sandy could do, I think.”
In addition to curveball grips, Kershaw and Stripling also highlighted Koufax’s career dominance, how he would succeed in the current era and more.
Kershaw joins elite group
With a win against the Washington Nationals, Kershaw improved to a career 177-77, joining an exclusive group of pitchers who are a minimum of 100 games over .500 since the divisional era began in 1969.
Kershaw joined the likes of Pedro Martinez (219-100), Roger Clemens (354-184), Randy Johnson (303-166), Jim Palmer (245-137), Mike Mussina (270-153), Andy Pettitte (256-153), Greg Maddux (355-227) and Tom Glavine (305-203).
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