To the rescue again Andy McCullough from The Athletic and also a great author of
a brand new book out there about Clayton Kershaw, the last of his kind.
Andy, thanks a lot for the time. Appreciate it. David,
this is great. My publisher wanted me to keep doing media interviews and no
players will talk to you. So here we are great combination today in New
York with a doubleheader. How has the response to the book been positive so
far? You know, it's been really fun to uh, you know,
see the book out in the world. We're still doing your books are still
available, you know, we're still signing book plates if people want to send
me an email. But yeah, it's been cool. It's been a unique
experience and you only get to, you know, do it for the first
time once. So it's been it's been great. Yeah. I've been around
Kershaw a lot since the book came out, and he really hasn't talked about
it too much. What's has been what's been his reaction to the finished product?
Yeah, he's selling that that meat package. Yeah, what's going on
with hershaw beef? But no talk about the book, right, he's a
lefties not trying to be Nolan Ryan, I don't get it. You know,
Clayton has been I think, very gracious about what for him. I
don't just assume he said, it's kind of a strange experience, right,
Like, he didn't ask for this book to be written. He was very
cooperative and generous his time, with his time during the process, but it
wasn't something that he was necessarily like looking forward to. And you know it
when we've spoken about it, he says he hasn't read it, which is
totally fine. I think it would be very strange to write a or to
read a four hundred page book about yourself, you know. But he's been,
yeah, very gracious and polite, and you know, has told me
like he hopes the thing does well and passes along when people tell him they
like it and so. But yeah, it sounds like he's more probably focused
on what's more important, which is spending time with his family, getting his
shoulder right and you know, selling that beef package. Yeah, no doubt
beef and getting that shoulder right. He feels like it's starting to come around.
Did you do you believe that he expected to be a Dodger this season?
I think it was definitely up in the air, you know, coming
into the offseason. He kind of wrote about this in the last chapter of
the book that he was more open to going to Texas and probably he ever
had been, and the way it worked out with Texas' finances, they weren't
particularly aggressive and going after him, and the Dodgers, you know, were
probably more patient in terms of letting him figure out what it was it was
important to him, and it worked out that, you know, they were
able to get him on a pretty decent guarantee for this year with a player
option for next season, which was very important because I think one of the
things that you know, he expressed to me that he really wanted was not
just to make comeback for twenty twenty four, you know, come back mid
season coming off surgery. He wanted to if he was gonna keep going,
to at least do another full season or a full offseason where he could come
in sort of normal and healthy and you know in twenty twenty five, which
could be you know, theoretically could be a Swan song. Who can say.
But the Dodgers willing to provide that player option I think really helped.
Andy McCullough is our guest you can find his new book anywhere they sell it,
the last of his kind, a biography on Clayton Kershaw. And here's
a question for you, Andy, And I feel like this is a question
that would fall in the same category for Walker Bueller because the team and the
personnel and the faces have changed so much the last two years. Do you
believe when Khrushaw comes back he's kind of an outsider on his own team?
I mean, I think that the hope for the Dodgers and for him is
that he's around enough during the you know, when the team is at home,
that he has relationships and things like that. But it's definitely not his
team anymore. I don't think that's breaking news. I mean, you know,
remember when when I was a beat writer, you know at the Times
from sixteen to eighteen and even in nineteen, you know, when I was
transitioning out of that role, Like it was his clubhouse, right, Like
he set the tone for for everyone and through the combination of just kind of
the passage of time and obviously injury, Like the room belongs to other people,
not belongs to but it's just like this, the tone is set by
other people. It's you know, this is Showo Tony seeing Mookie Bats,
Freddie Freeman there clearly you know the dominant personalities in the room. And so
yeah, I mean there is a bit of an outsider this to that which
I think there is an adjustment, but it also like it's not gonna affect
the way he works. It seems like, you know, on a day
to day basis, it's not gonna affect the intensity he brings. But it
certainly is, like you know, from my perspective, not being around the
team every day and then coming back into that environment, you see some familiar
faces, but it's very clearly a different group and a different vibe than it
was all those years ago. Andy McCullough is our guest, and speaking of
the time that you did cover the Dodgers, they not only had their best
players be leaders, whether that was Justin Turner or even Chase Suttley David Freese
back in eighteen and nineteen obviously set a lot of the tone and lead.
Do you believe this Dodger team is missing the their two best players are not
really vocal leaders. Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, as
someone who's not around every day, it's harder for me to say, and
I think that it's something that you know, we'll know more as this year
goes along. I mean, Dave Roberts has always talked about how it's important
to have your best players be leaders. You know, that makes everyone's job
easier when it's Clayton Kershaw and Justin Turner and ken Lee Janssen providing those sort
of examples. But like Kershaw was never a particularly vocal sort of guy.
I mean, Justin Turner, you know, I mean maybe ken Lee was
the most vocal of those three, but like Turner was not a big raw
ra speech sort of guy. Utley certainly wasn't. I think it is interesting,
you know, it's a challenge for someone like Otani to be the leader
given that one like he doesn't you know, English isn't his native language,
and so there's challenges there. He's had obviously a you know, tumultuous start
to his Dodgers career with the scandal, and you know, I was thinking
more Mookie and Freddie and that's not them. Yeah, I guess the issue
with Mookie and Freddy is is it leadership or is it just like get a
hit in the playoffs? A little bit of both right, Like, like
would anyone you know, would it be an issue if they hit three hundred
in the postseason? Probably not. Now, how much does that affect,
you know, the vibes and all that stuff coming in? I don't know.
I just think so much of what has been rendered a judgment about this
team is just based on the fact that those two guys didn't really play well
in the postseason the last couple of years, which, like you know,
it goes on their record for it. But yeah, I don't know.
I mean it's it is definitely easier for a manager, for a team,
for a clubhouse when the best players set the example for sure. All right,
Andy, thanks a lot for the insight. I don't buy everything you
just said, but I did buy your book for other people in my family,
trying to help the McCullough household. There last of his kind, The
Biography of Clayton Kerrshot's a great book. Find it now. Thanks a lot
for the time. My insight is worth what I charge for it. But
the book is on discount at ashet dot com. Okay, that's enough.