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Kershaw’s Challenge: A World Series champion on the field, Clayton’s true legacy begins with his charitable work off it

Highland Park native Clayton Kershaw and his wife’s charity has raised more than $12 million.

Two weeks ago, Clayton Kershaw strolled over to his sister-in-law’s University Park home, plopped down in an Adirondack chair and prepared to watch the annual bike rodeo from the neighborhood elementary school.

A DJ played music. Kids streamed by, some wobbling, some pedaling. Parents waved and shouted enthusiastically.

“Hey,” his sister-in-law, Ann Higginbottom, called out. “You know, this might be as close as you get to a parade this year.”

The punchline is that it took all of Kershaw’s self-restraint not to ask the DJ if he could crank up Queen’s rock anthem “We Are the Champions.” The reality: The Los Angeles Dodgers ace contentedly acknowledged the irony of the bike rodeo subbing for a World Series parade and settled back into his chair to applaud the kids some more. Enthusiastically.

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If you are looking to capture Clayton Kershaw’s legacy — the subject of innumerable Octobers past — it’s better to start here than back at the World Series.

Sure, the end of the World Series, played in its entirety at Globe Life Field in Arlington because of the COVID-19 pandemic, provided an indelible image of Kershaw. In it, Kershaw is sprinting in from the bullpen after the series’ clinching out, his eyes and palms turned skyward in thankfulness. It seemed so telling after nine fruitless trips through the postseason, which had led to an unyielding debate over Kershaw’s legacy.

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But if you really want to know about Kershaw’s legacy, you are better off starting here: With family and children (or as Kershaw always refers to them: “kiddos”). It could be on his own street or, just as likely, in corners of the world like Zambia and Dominican Republic and in the neglected areas of his hometown (Dallas) and his adopted city (Los Angeles).

It is in the work of Kershaw’s Challenge, the charity he and his wife, Ellen, began in 2011 shortly after a post-honeymoon, life-changing trip to Zambia. To date, they have helped raise more than $12 million. Kershaw’s Challenge has helped build two schools and two homes for orphaned and abandoned children in Zambia.

Most recently, it has become the lead benefactor on a project to restore football and baseball fields to an underserved community center in Oak Cliff serving the Cedar Crest neighborhood. It is part of an $8 million project to refurbish the community center.

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“He’s got a massive amount of love and care for kids who are really in a rough spot,” said Alissa Rosebrough of Arise Africa, the Fort Worth-based humanitarian organization with which the Kershaws partnered to build the facilities in Lusaka, Zambia. “Kids strike a chord with him.”

‘It changes your heart’

Clayton and Ellen Kershaw visit with children on their second visit to Lusaka, Zambia, in 2012.
Clayton and Ellen Kershaw visit with children on their second visit to Lusaka, Zambia, in 2012.(Courtesy of Kershaw’s Challenge)

The Kershaws met in middle school, began dating at Highland Park High School and were married on Dec. 4, 2010. Four weeks later, they spent their first New Year’s Eve together flying to Zambia.

It wasn’t the first time Ellen had been there. She first learned about the overwhelming number of abandoned and orphaned children in the land-locked African nation from an Oprah Winfrey TV program while in eighth grade. A whole generation of parents was wiped out by the AIDS pandemic. Nearly 1 million children ended up living on the streets, mostly in the capital of Lusaka. The program haunted her. But at 13, she also felt helpless to do anything.

While she was in college at Texas A&M and Kershaw was working his way through the Dodgers’ minor league system, she made a three-week summer mission trip happen. It was not just life-changing, but eventually lives-changing.

“I built these amazing relationships with kids over there that very much became part of who I am,” Ellen said. “I felt like there was a huge part of my heart over there. I’d tell him about it when I got home, but unless you see it, smell it and build those relationships, you can’t quite understand the magnitude of what it feels like. So, it was very important for him to come with me, early in our marriage, especially as I was about to jump in the baseball life.”

From left: Clayton Kershaw, Hope and Ellen Kershaw.
From left: Clayton Kershaw, Hope and Ellen Kershaw.(Courtesy of Kershaw’s Challenge)

Kershaw was a bit uncomfortable at first. The mission didn’t have the same personal tug it did for Ellen.

But he packed up his baseball gear — he had to keep throwing that winter — and they went.

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“There was definitely some insecurity in the beginning,” Ellen said. “It’s not a cookie-cutter experience for everybody. But one evening, he’s out throwing and all these kids started to line the road to watch. He kind of started tossing the baseball to these kids and they would just erupt in laughter every single time they caught it or threw it. I think it was kind of a lightbulb moment for him. He figured out his way to connect. He just became a human jungle gym. Kids are climbing all over him.”

Then they met Hope. She was 9, born with HIV, orphaned and living on the streets of Lusaka.

“I had some reservations,” Kershaw said. “But you looked in Hope’s eyes and see that you can make one difference in one kid. You can’t change a whole country blanketed in poverty so fast, but you see one kid, you see that you can help one kid. It changes your heart.”

On the trip home, as they processed what they’d just witnessed, Ellen reminded her husband that baseball, and the glory that comes with it, are fleeting. She proposed an idea: Let’s do something with longer-term meaning.

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“That’s how Kershaw’s Challenge was started,” he said. “Trying to help one kid.”

Miscast narrative

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitches against the Rays during the sixth inning of...
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitches against the Rays during the sixth inning of Game 5 of the World Series at Globe Life Field on Oct. 25, 2020, in Arlington.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

On the night the Dodgers clinched the World Series, Kershaw finished the game in the bullpen. He’d gone down there, as he often has during his tenure as this Generation’s Greatest Pitcher, to be available. Just in case he was needed.

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That disposition is part of Kershaw’s baseball legacy. No other starter, much less a three-time Cy Young winner, has pitched out of the bullpen as often as he has. And it’s perhaps part of why the miscast narrative arose. He’d had some great postseason starts, a couple of clunkers and an absolute willingness to do whatever was asked.

Until this year, he may have been a three-time Cy Young Award winner, an MVP and the greatest Dodgers pitcher since Sandy Koufax. But the Dodgers were 1-4 in his World Series appearances in losing back-to-back Series in 2017-18. And that came after he posted a 4.55 ERA in 18 postseason games from from 2008-16, while the Dodgers’ world championship drought stretched to 30 years.

It didn’t matter that he’d often offered to pitch out of the bullpen between starts during the postseason, unusual for any starter, let alone an ace. It didn’t matter that he was willing to take the ball often on shorter-than-usual rest. Labels must be fixed, or so decree the TV debate shows. Either a player is a big-game performer or he isn’t. The court of popular opinion tilted toward the latter.

Until Oct. 27, that is. Two days earlier, he’d won his second game of the World Series to put the Dodgers on the precipice of the title.

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw waves to fans behind home plate as he celebrates...
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw waves to fans behind home plate as he celebrates their World Series win over the Rays in Game 6 at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Oct. 27, 2020.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

When Julio Urias struck out Tampa Bay’s Willy Adames for the season’s final out, Kershaw peered over the fence, arms raised. He let the other Dodgers relievers spill out of the bullpen into the mayhem first. He was the last guy out. In right field, he slowed for a second, looked upward and raised his palms. It was perfect imagery in so many ways.

The ultimate teammate, bedeviled through a decade of failed postseason chases, finally finishing the race in first, expressing relief over the unspoken burden. And the man who has led a faith-based life offering thanks.

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“You don’t know how you are going to react; you don’t really plan that,” Kershaw said. “It kind of happens and the first feeling is relief, a sigh of relief. And then, after you exhale, it’s just gratefulness and thankfulness. It was just pure joy.”

He ran to the mound to jump with teammates for a moment, then quickly broke off searching for Ellen and their three kiddos, Cali, Charlie and Cooper, who were sitting in the sealed-off family section. Once reunited, he pointed to a rowdy group of six buddies, “the best friends” text group who have been just that, some of them as far back as elementary school. They were running up and down the stairs.

It was all surreal: Kershaw winning the World Series, in his hometown, his family on the field and his friends above him.

“There is nobody more deserving in this sport,” said Dallas’ Patrick Halpin, who joined the crew when they were in fourth grade. “And there had been this cloud that had kind of grown over the whole ‘legacy.’ The amount of work, turmoil, humility to get that last piece was extraordinary. I think we were all just feeling nothing but pure joy for him.

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“The struggle made it mean more in the end.”

The Kershaws stood off to the side as one teammate after another streamed to the mound to take pictures with the Commissioner’s Trophy. When they finally ascended, he held Cooper, 10 months, in one hand and the trophy in the other.

When he was later asked about ending the narrative, Kershaw waved off the question.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “The past doesn’t matter. We’re world champions.”

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A greater mission

Youths and coaches at the Cedar Crest Community Center in Dallas on Nov. 24, 2020.
Youths and coaches at the Cedar Crest Community Center in Dallas on Nov. 24, 2020. (Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

In the month since the Dodgers won, Kershaw has endured all the questions all over again. On Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Good Morning America. And with People magazine.

Why? Why do it now after putting everything to rest?

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There is a greater mission: the real legacy.

“I don’t love self-promotion,” Kershaw said. “But Jimmy asked about the foundation and others are bound to do that also. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but it’s another click for Kershaw’s Challenge. It’s what a World Series can help do for this. You only get this moment in life for so long, so you might as well make the most of it.”

The question is whether this is another test. Kershaw now has the power of a World Series behind him, but in-person fund-raising events have been canceled due to the pandemic.

He couldn’t host his annual pingpong tournament in Los Angeles or his usual concert at The Rustic in Dallas. It creates an entirely new set of challenges: How do you raise funds without fundraisers?

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It requires adaptability. On the fly, Kershaw’s Challenge put together a drive with Shoes that Fit to benefit children in Dallas and Los Angeles. The drive began on Black Friday and runs through December 3, the night of what would have been the annual concert.

And there is another major project in the works. Last November, the scars of another playoff loss still fresh, the Kershaws were coaxed into visiting the Cedar Crest Community Center in Oak Cliff. Behind Every Door, a non-profit run by Will Dowell, is trying to raise $8 million to overhaul the center and to build in two years of funding for programming.

It was difficult to keep Kershaw from jumping into a pickup basketball game on-site. It was not hard, however, to get Kershaw’s Challenge to commit as the lead benefactor on a $2.5 million project to renovate football and baseball fields at the facility.

Javorian Simpson (center), 10, throws a pass on the football field at the Cedar Crest...
Javorian Simpson (center), 10, throws a pass on the football field at the Cedar Crest Community Center in Dallas on Nov. 24, 2020. (Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

“I think the circumstances of 2020 are going to make people change the way they have looked at things,” Dowell said. “People are waiting to do something to combat things like police brutality and the divisions we have. People are saying ‘I want to do something.’

“And Clayton’s belief in people and their value is No. 1,” he added. “This is not a show. He spends money, sure. But he leverages himself to lift people’s perception of themselves. When he is there, he is present and in the moment. He believes every single person has infinite value and should be held up as such. He’s not jumping on a bandwagon, he’s out there leading the charge.”

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Or, put another way: He’s leading the parade. Just one with far more meaning than celebrating a world championship.

Winning on the field …

Clayton Kershaw passed 250 career decisions during 2020 and has the best winning percentage all-time among pitchers with at least that many outcomes. A look at the top 10 all-time.

NameDecisionsW-LWinning pct.
Clayton Kershaw251175-76697
Whitey Ford*342236-106690
Pedro Martinez*319219-100687
Lefty Grove*441300-141680
Christy Mathewson*561373-188665
Roy Halladay*308203-105659
Roger Clemens538354-184658
Sandy Koufax*252165-87655
Max Scherzer268175-93653
Ron Guidry261170-91651
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*Denotes Hall of Famer

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

… And off it

A look at some of the notable accomplishments and projects by Clayton Kershaw and Kershaw’s Challenge Charity, which he and his wife, Ellen, began:

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— Kershaw won the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s highest award for humanitarian contributions in 2012. He is the only player in baseball history to win the MVP, Cy Young Award (three times) and Clemente Award.

— Kershaw’s Challenge has raised over $12 million since its inception in 2011 to help with projects in Dallas, his in-season home of Los Angeles, the Dominican Republic and Zambia.

In Zambia: In partnership with Arise Africa, Kershaw’s Challenge has helped fund the building of two homes for orphaned and abandoned children, home to 14 children in full custody, built five classrooms at Destiny Community School and funded 170 surgeries. The next project is a new school building.

In the Dominican Republic: In partnership with the International Justice Mission, Kershaw’s Challenge has helped fund the aftercare of child survivors of human trafficking. They also purchased an X-ray machine and funded more than 100 surgeries through CURE International.

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In Los Angeles: Kershaw’s Challenge has provided more than 6,000 backpacks for school children, served more than 100 families through the Transitional Housing Program and another 100 through the Foster Care Intervention program, funded the building of a playground, after school activity center and multiple baseball fields.

In Dallas: Through a donation to Mercy Street, helped fund the baseball field that bears his name at the Rangers Academy in West Dallas, the only piece of the property funded by somebody who neither played or coached for the club. With Behind Every Door, helped to fund the refurbishing or purchase of three community centers, most recently the Cedar Crest Community Center in South Oak Cliff. Kershaw’s Challenge has also provided baseball gloves, a camp and scholarships. Partnered with Shoes That Fit, the charity aims to provide 8,000 pairs of shoes for children in Dallas and Los Angeles. The charity added a holiday shoe drive that went live Friday.

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