During his remarkable 12-year MLB career, Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax won and/or accomplished this:

• MLB MVP
• Three Cy Young awards
• Three Triple Crowns
• Seven-time All-Star
• Three-time World Series champion
• Two-time World Series MVP
• Five ERA titles
• Two-time MLB Player of the Year

On October 2, 1966, Sandy Koufax won his 165th and final career game.

In 1972, Sanford Koufax, the man affectionately known as ‘The Left Arm of God,’ received baseball’s highest honor when he was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

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Thus far in his remarkable 12-year MLB career, Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw has won and/or accomplished this:

• MLB MVP
• Three Cy Young awards
• Triple Crown
• Eight-time All-Star
• Gold Glove winner
• Five ERA titles
• MLB Player of the Year

On Tuesday night, August 20, 2019, in front of a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,030, Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw won his 166th career; one better than his mentor and extremely close friend Sandy Koufax.

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“What Sandy means to this organization and what he means to me personally, it’s an incredible thing, something I never thought would happen,” Kershaw said after collecting his 166th career win in the Dodgers 16-3 pounding of the Toronto Blue Jays. “It’s not the most important thing in the world, but it’s something to look back on when all is said and done.

“It’s an honor, for me, to be mentioned in the same sentence as Sandy, I’ve said that many times. What he was able to accomplish in his career, and would have gone a lot longer if he played today because he could have gotten healthy [with Tommy John surgery].”

By now you should clearly be able to see where this is going. Clayton Edward Kershaw is destined to one day join his mentor and dear friend Sandy Koufax in the sacred halls of Cooperstown, where the two will enjoy baseball immortality. In fact, the 31-year-old Dallas, TX native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in University Park, TX is already quite often referred to as ‘future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.‘

Although Kershaw is definitely not the same pitcher that he was in his early days, when you can win more games than a current Hall of Famer and still have gas in the tank, it’s just a matter of time before we refer to him as ‘Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw’ instead of ‘future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.’

Play Ball!

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