There was a time several years ago when I asked Vin Scully about the great Clayton Kershaw -- just because who better to have asked anyone a Dodgers question, about any of them back to Brooklyn and the 1950s? He had been around long enough to see Kershaw at his best the way he saw Sandy Koufax at his best. Mostly, I was interested that day about the relationship between Dodgers fans and Kershaw.

“Not only do they appreciate him,” Scully said. “They love him. Maybe in part it’s because of what he’s been able to accomplish, with that same kind of grace, in the long shadow of Mr. Koufax.”

It was a fitting comparison and connection, not necessarily because of the way the two men pitched, just of what they meant to their teams, to their city and to baseball. Kershaw did become Koufax for

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