Fact: Thirty-two-year-old / 13-year MLB veteran Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw is a future first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Fact: Barring the Second Coming or a second Parting of the Red Sea, the only way that 23-year-old / second-year (rookie) major leaguer and San Diego Padres outfielder Trent Grisham gets into the sacred Halls of Cooperstown is if he buys a ticket.

Make no mistake about it; the NL West first-place Dodgers looked like crap in Monday’s extremely crucial three-game series opener with the hard-charging NL West second-place Padres, who have now won eight consecutive games and nine of their last 10. The Dodgers, on the other hand, are now 5-5 over their last 10 games.

But it’s what Grisham did when he hit his (then) game-tying solo home run to right field off of Kershaw to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning that showed both his immaturity and his total lack of respect for the game and for a future Hall of Famer.

After crushing Kershaw’s 91.7-mph four-seam fastball, which he never even looked at after hitting it, Grisham pimped his home run in a manner that would have embarrassed Reggie Jackson, Manny Ramirez, or even Yasiel Puig.

Immediately after slugging his no-doubter, Grisham threw his bat down, stared into his team’s first-base-side dugout, and made a slashing motion to his throat. He then began his (very slow) home run trot.

As Grisham rounded third base, someone in the Dodgers dugout yelled something at him, causing him to turn and yell something back at them, clearly in a provoking ‘in-your-face’ manner that prompted home plate umpire Mark Ripperger, who had witnessed Grisham’s antics, to hold his hand up firmly instructing the Dodgers to remain in their dugout; not that Ripperger even needed to do so. Grisham then jumped on home plate with both feet like a nine-year-old who just hit his first Little League home run.

But as Dodger fans have come to expect from their team’s beloved ace and future Hall of Famer, Kershaw took the high road on Grisham’s solo home run.

“I’m not going to worry about their team,” Kershaw told reporters after the game. “Let him do what he wants.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who has been around the game for more than 20 years and who spent two seasons playing with the Padres and one season as their manager, was a little less forgiving of Grisham’s lack of respect for Kershaw and for the game itself.

“I don’t mind guys admiring a homer. Certainly, it’s a big game, big hit,” Roberts said after his team’s ugly 7-2 loss. “Really like the player, but I just felt to overstay at home plate, against a guy like Clayton, who’s got the respect of everyone in the big leagues for what he’s done in this game, I just took exception to that. There’s a certain respect that you give a guy if you homer against him.”

Grisham has no such respect … at least not initially. But by every indication, it appears that someone may have ‘splained’ things to the Burleson, TX native, and first-round draft pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2015 out of Richland High School in North Richland Hills, TX.

“It was emotional,” Grisham told the San Diego media after the game. “It’s a big situation off a big pitcher, a Hall of Fame pitcher, in a big game. Stakes were high. It got the guys going. When we get excited and get after it and have fun playing the game, we go.”

Ask Kershaw where you can go.

…although he has way too much class to lower himself to your level.

Play Ball!

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