When Wilson Baseball made it’s way to Camelback Ranch early in March, Dodgers players were giddy with excitement over their new leather for the 2020 season. While players like Max Muncy, Austin Barnes, Ross Stripling and more were getting new gear for use during games, Clayton Kershaw was merely browsing the wares of Wilson.
If you’ve had a keen eye over the last 12 years, you would know that the 3-time Cy Young Award winner has been using the same glove since 2009. And he tells us why he made the switch from the glove he was using in his rookie season.
My first glove my rookie year had a different type of webbing and you could kinda see the ball through it, so that was basically my reason to change gloves and now that I got the right webbing, I haven’t changed since.
12 years for a baseball glove is pretty impressive, even if it’s a Wilson A2000. These things get beaten and battered, weathered and rained on, occasionally mistreated and so on, so for a glove to last for that long and even pick up a Gold Glove award along the way… impressive.
Of course, baseball is a game of adjustments and changes, so why the same mitt for so long, Kersh?
I’m not a huge change guy. So I think for me, just to have something that I can use every single game… over the years I’ve used it more sparingly. I used to use it every single day and now I just want to make sure it’s perfect for the game so I only use it on game days.
One of the more special moments from Clayton came in the form of a rare showing of sentimentality when talking about his “special” glove and hopes with his newborn son.
This is my 13th year here with the Dodgers; I’ve had this for 12 of it and hopefully, as long as I play, I can have this glove … we just had another son and I’m hoping possibly he could be left-handed and if he ever wanted to use it, it would be pretty cool. It could be part of the family.
Great stuff from one of the greatest of all time.
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