Editorials

Clayton Kershaw Calls Madison Bumgarner A ‘Great Guy’

Madison Bumgarner, Yasiel Puig

For as great as Clayton Kershaw is on the field, he’s equally as humbling and gracious off of it. As Kershaw pitched his way through a historic 2014 season, he routinely deflected praise and credited his teammates for whatever success he had on any particular evening.



Throughout the season, Kershaw reigned as the undisputed best pitcher in baseball. However, once October rolled around and those pesky St. Louis Cardinals proved to once again have the formula to solve Kershaw, that title was placed by some on Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner’s postseason performance was essentially as dominant as Kershaw’s regular season. Albeit in a smaller sample size, but on a larger stage. After Kershaw won his third Cy Young Award in four years, he complimented Bumgarner’s talent and , via Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times:

While Bumgarner may certainly be the standup person Kershaw believes he is, Yasiel Puig may not be quick to agree. Twice last season Bumgarner and Puig clashed, with perhaps the first incident in May feeding into their dustup in September.

Along with paying his respects to Bumgarner, Kershaw differed from Adrian Gonzalez in definitively stating the Los Angeles Dodgers were better than the San Francisco Giants last season:

The Dodgers sealed the NL West title with Kershaw on the mound one night after defeating the Giants behind Justin Turner’s two home runs off Bumgarner. While it conceivably gave the Dodgers an advantage heading into the postseason, it set the stage for Bumgarner and the Giants to make history.

Whether Kershaw’s teammates would agree with their ace’s comments can debated but one thing that appears certain is the rivalry being very much alive with both teams facing high expectations.

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

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