Video: Clayton Kershaw is fantastic, forget his postseason woes

An unfortunate function of the modern-day sports fan is the unrelenting need to judge everything on the grandest scale. Case in point: LeBron James isn’t just playing to win the NBA Finals. No, he’s playing for his legacy and to be the face of the game again.

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And if you don’t like James or Steph Curry or Aaron Rodgers or Cam Newton (or whoever), they’re never going to do enough to earn your praise until they throw 10 touchdowns in the Super Bowl or score 85 points in the NBA Finals. We poke and prod and overanalyze and “well, actually” everything.

Just admit it, Clayton Kershaw is fantastic, despite his sketchy postseason history. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Which brings us to Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw could go out and throw no-hitters for a month and there would still be a subsection of baseball fans just waiting for their moment to tell you about his 4.59 postseason ERA.

Kershaw hasn’t been great in the postseason. I’ll admit that. He’ll admit that. Any Dodgers fan will, with varying degrees of remorse, admit that. But, sheesh, can we just enjoy the greatness that is Kershaw and his curve ball in 2016 without opening up the history book at every turn?

I tackle this topic in the latest installment of my Open Mike video series because Kershaw just had a phenomenal month of May. He threw three shutouts in six starts. He had a 0.91 ERA. He struck out 65 batters and walked only two, which might be the most unbelievable baseball stat of the season thus far. C’mon, that’s just not even fair.

So while Kershaw continues to be historically great this season — his strikeout-to-walk rate is 21.00, the next best is 9.00, belonging to Noah Syndergaard — some fans are still chirping about his postseason woes. That’s completely true, but get over it.

I don’t watch Kershaw pitch, like he will Saturday night against the Atlanta Braves, and replay in my head the dagger homer by Matt Adams in 2014 NLDS. I appreciate how great Kershaw is right now, at this very moment.

[Previously on Open Mike: Baseball’s scales of justice are strange]

As sports fans, we sometimes just can’t let things go. We hold on to a great player’s failures, use them to downplay their achievements and let them fuel for our hot takes about why someone like Clayton Kershaw isn’t as great as his numbers say he is.

So, yeah, Clayton Kershaw hasn’t been great in Octobers of the past. But you know what? I’m watching baseball in the present. And present-day Clayton Kershaw is fantastic.

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