Kershaw's message lets Dodgers reset

After bummer summer, pitcher's impending retirement helps refocus team

- BY JACK HARRIS

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times CLAYTON KERSHAW (22) made it clear it was his Dodgers teammates who he would miss the most.

As Dodgers players packed in for Clayton Kershaw's retirement news conference last Thursday, Freddie Freeman waved the Kershaw family to a row of seats at the front of the room.

He wanted Kershaw's wife, Ellen, and their four kids in front of the pitcher right when he sat down at the dais at Dodger Stadium.

How else, Freeman joked, could they get the future Hall of Famer to cry?

Turned out, in a 14-minute address announcing his retirement from baseball at the end of this season, Kershaw did get choked up from behind the mic. But, it happened first when he addressed his teammates. They, he told him, were who he was going to miss most.

"The hardest one is the teammates, so I'm not even going to look at you guys in the eye," Kershaw said, his eyes quickly turning red. "Just you guys sitting in this room, you mean so much to me.

We have so much fun. I’m going to miss it.”

“The game in and of itself, I'm going to miss a lot, but I'll be OK without that,” he later added. “I think the hard partis the feeling after a win, celebrating with you guys. That’s pretty special.”

Days later, that message continues to reverberate.

For the Dodgers, it served as a reminder anda reset.

Since early July, the team had lived in a world blanketed by frustration and wracked with repeated misery. Many players were hurt or uncharacteristically slumping. The team as a whole endured an extended sub-.500 skid.

Behind inconsistent offense and unreliable bullpen pitching, a big division lead dwindled. Visions of 120-win grandeur were meekly dashed.

Amid that slump, the club’s focus drifted. From team production to individual mechanics. From collective urgency to internal dissatisfaction.