The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness

By Andy McCullough

Book Overview

This definitive biography of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw examines the genesis of his brilliance, his epic quest to win the World Series, and his singular place within the evolving baseball landscape--based on exclusive interviews with Kershaw and more than 200 others.

More than any baseball player of his generation, Clayton Kershaw has embodied the rewards and burdens of athletic greatness. He is a three-time Cy Young award winner, the first pitcher to win National League MVP since Bob Gibson, and a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Many of his peers consider him the greatest pitcher to ever climb atop a big-league mound.

In an age when baseball became more impersonal, Kershaw personified the game's lingering humanity, with his joy and suffering on display each October as he chased a championship. He pitched through pain, placing his future at risk on the game's grandest stages. He endeared himself to teammates and foes alike with his refusal to make excuses, and with his willingness to shoulder the blame when he failed. He further impressed them when he returned, year after year, even as his body broke down from the strain of his profession. When the Dodgers finally won a title in 2020, and again in 2024, the television cameras inevitably found Kershaw in his triumph.

The Last of His Kind traces Kershaw's path from a boyhood fractured by divorce to his development as one of the most-heralded pitching prospects in Texas history to his emergence in Los Angeles as the spiritual heir to Sandy Koufax. The book also charts Kershaw's place in the churn of baseball history as his own stubbornness butted against the game's evolution. The narrative of baseball in the 21st century can be told through Kershaw's career--to understand how baseball is played today, and how it got that way, you must understand the journey of Clayton Kershaw.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306832593
• ISBN13: 9780306832598
• Release Date: May 2024
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Love Kershaw, Love This Book

Written toward the end of Kershaw’s career, this wonderful book by Andy McCullough really gets to the heart of the magnificent pitcher. Couldn’t put it down. Every page fully revealed what makes Clayton Kershaw so special to the game of baseball. It also reflects on the breadth and depth of his character beyond his sports career as a family man, community contributor, and old school role model.