Weekend Plug-in 🔌

Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Subscribe now to get this column delivered straight to your inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr. at therossnews@gmail.com.

LOS ANGELES — On a sunny Sunday afternoon, 10-time All-Star pitcher Clayton Kershaw stood atop the Los Angeles Dodgers dugout and declared his love for Jesus.

Microphone in hand, the future Hall of Famer thanked the thousands of fans — a sea of blue-and-white Dodgers jerseys and T-shirts — who stayed for the postgame program on Christian Faith and Family Day.

READ: Jesus At The Ballpark: Why MLB Teams Host Faith Nights

“Jesus, thank you so much for this day,” Kershaw said as he led the Dodger Stadium crowd in a prayer. “What an opportunity to get to be here and glorify you and talk about you and how much you mean in our lives. Help us every single day to follow you as best as we can.”

The scene, which I witnessed while reporting on MLB faith nights for Religion Unplugged last summer, reflected the importance of faith in the life of the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner.

“The Last Of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness,” a new book by Andy McCullough, touts itself as the definitive biography of the Dodgers ace.

Sportswriters tend to let “holy ghosts” haunt their coverage of athletes who mention God, so I wondered if McCullough — a senior baseball writer for The Athletic and former Dodgers beat writer for the Los Angeles Times — would delve into Kershaw’s religion.

I’m pleased to report that McCullough expertly weaves faith — so crucial to what makes Kershaw tick — throughout the book’s 400 pages.

That’s not to suggest “The Last Of His Kind” serves, in any way, as a devotional guide. At its heart, this is a baseball book — a deeply reported, descriptively riveting one. It’s the best I’ve read since “Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask,” Jon Pessah’s epic 2020 portrait of the late Yogi Berra, a 10-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees.

READ: For Baseball Star Clayton Kershaw And His Wife, Faith Provides A Foundation

Now recuperating from offseason shoulder surgery, the 36-year-old Kershaw is working toward a return to the mound for his 17th year with the Dodgers.

McCullough takes his audience from the superstar’s less-than-perfect childhood with divorced parents in the Dallas area to his emergence in high school as one of the nation’s top pitchers.

Readers experience the ups and downs of one of the best regular season lefthanded pitchers in history (210-92 overall record with a career 2.48 ERA) as he faces persistent postseason challenges (13-13 overall record with a career 4.49 ERA) and, along the way, injuries.

McCullough pieces together the complicated puzzle of Kershaw: an intense competitor (with a control-freak personality on the days he pitches), a devoted husband and father (with four children he adores) and a committed man of faith (albeit one with occasional doubts, just like most Christians).

In agreeing to cooperate with McCullough’s research, Kershaw told the writer: “You know I’m not great at talking about myself, or in general. It’s going to be up to you to make me talk.”

“I’m going to ask great questions,” the journalist responded.

McCullough did just that and filled in the gaps by interviewing 215 people — including family, friends and fellow ballplayers — about the 2014 National League Most Valuable Player.

On the faith side, the book offers a number of revealing takeaways.

Here are five:

— Kershaw’s relationship with his high school sweetheart and future wife, Ellen, reshaped his faith.

“Kershaw had seen God as a distant presence,” McCullough writes. “Ellen convinced him the Lord was near, that God’s grace was all around him.”

— Kershaw came to see his baseball talent as a gift from above.

“In time, Kershaw saw his faith deepen,” McCullough writes. “He evolved from a good high school pitcher into a great one. When the Dodgers selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft, Kershaw felt his faith in the Lord had been rewarded.”

— Kershaw does not believe God cares whether he wins or loses.

“The other team, he figured, was praying just as ardently as he was,” McCullough writes. “‘But He definitely cares how we respond afterward,’” Kershaw would tell (friend and teammate A.J.) Ellis. Did you hog credit after victories but shirk responsibility after failure? Kershaw believed that mattered more than the result on the field.”

— Kershaw felt compelled to speak up after a controversy last year over the Dodgers honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — a group that satirizes sacred Catholic rituals — during its Pride Night game.

“I put a lot of thought into it, and talked to a lot of different people,” McCullough quotes Kershaw as telling him. “I just came to the conclusion that the Dodgers really put us in a horrible position. It’s not an LGBT issue. It’s just, like, that group is pretty rough. And I’m all for funny, and satire, but that goes way beyond it. So I did feel like I needed to say something.”

— Even while publicly speaking out about his Christian beliefs last year, Kershaw faced a personal crisis of faith.

“Sometimes I feel like an imposter when it comes to my faith,” McCullough quotes Kershaw as telling him. “Because baseball has given a huge platform, right? Talk about whatever you want. And Jesus, ultimately, is what I choose to talk about. And I think that is what God wants me to do with my life, use that platform. But sometimes when you don’t feel the Holy Spirit, or I don’t feel that, you feel like you’re just putting yourself out there without the conviction of doing it.”

Ellen counseled her husband to keep praying, even if his prayers felt insignificant, according to the author.

That’s exactly what Kershaw did on Christian Faith and Family Day last July.

“Thank you for this day,” he said to God from atop the dugout. “It is truly a special day to be at Dodger Stadium with this many people talking about you, worshipping you and just being so grateful for you in our lives. We love you. And it’s in Jesus’ name. Amen.” 

Inside The Godbeat

I first became a big fan of Silvia Foster-Frau when she worked for the San Antonio Express-News.

For years after the 2017 mass shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, Foster-Frau provided sensitive, nuanced coverage of the congregation.

This week, I was excited to see Foster-Frau, now a national investigative reporter for the Washington Post, awarded a Pulitzer Prize. She was part of a team recognized for “its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America.”

Congratulations, Silvia!

The Final Plug

In last week’s column, I wrote about a church in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, that survived a monster tornado with its century-old stained-glass windows mostly intact.

That piece ended with a prayer by Pam Chitwood that an engineer’s inspection might deem the damaged structure salvageable.

Chitwood texted me this week with an update: “We passed!!! Structural engineer said its good!! Praise Jesus!!!!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻”

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.

Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.