After a World Series that will live on forever in baseball lore, one of the many highlights we’ll remember is future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw ending his career as a champion.

After an impeccable 18 years, all in Dodger blue, the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner is hanging it up for good. Once his Dodgers pulled off their miraculous comeback win to finish an incredible series and Game 7, Kershaw was understandably overcome with emotion as he ran in from the bullpen to celebrate with his team. The pure bliss continued as he embraced his family on the field, then headed into the locker room for a well deserved champagne celebration.

Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts handed out bottles before he addressed his team ahead of the forthcoming shower. Before giving the seal of approval to pop the bottles, he made an admirable move to give the stage to Kershaw to start the chaos himself in his final clubhouse celebration.

“It’s an absolute honor to be in this clubhouse with you guys,” Kershaw said. “I love every single one of you. I can’t imagine a better way to go out than to pop bottles with this group of guys. We’re back-to-back champs!”

The perfect way to start the ruckus.

Kershaw made one appearance in the World Series, which came in the marathon Game 3 that lasted 18 innings. The seasoned vet got a huge groundout with the bases loaded to end the 12th inning for the Dodgers. He did get loose in the bullpen during Game 7 as the game went into the 11th inning, but Yoshinobu Yamamoto was able to close the door on the Blue Jays on his way to becoming the World Series MVP. Kershaw went 11-2 over 22 starts with a 3.36 ERA in his final season. He ends his career with 223 wins, 3,052 strikeouts and a 2.53 ERA.

A storybook ending for an incredible career. Soak all that champagne up, Kersh.

More World Series on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Dave Roberts Gave the Stage to Clayton Kershaw to Start Dodgers Champagne Celebration.

Add as preferred source on Google