SI:AM | Vlad Jr. Goes Yard (x3) and Kershaw’s Perfection Gets Cut Short

Plus, LSU’s $100 million gamble on Brian Kelly.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think I’m in the minority when it comes to the Clayton Kershaw situation.

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He’s going for that home run crown again

After sharing the major league lead in home runs last year with 48, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is continuing to crush baseballs in 2022.

Guerrero recorded the second four-hit game of his career last night against the Yankees, hitting three home runs and a double in Toronto’s 6–4 win in the Bronx. Two of those homers came off one of the best pitchers in the American League, Gerrit Cole. The other one came against Jonathan Loaisiga, who was the Yankees' top reliever last year.

On the first one, Guerrero took advantage of a mistake by Cole and sent a hanging slider out over the wall in dead center. But the other two homers are what make Guerrero’s night so impressive.

In the third inning, Cole threw Guerrero a 98-mph fastball in on the hands, several inches off the plate. Most hitters tie themselves in knots trying to swing at that, or, best-case scenario, fight it off the other way. Guerrero turned on it and pulled it over the fence in left center field an estimated 427 feet.

His third homer was a similar story. Loaisiga threw a 95-mph fastball in basically the same spot Cole threw the previous one. Guerrero pulled it to straightaway left and it landed in the upper deck.

The 23-year-old was so good that Cole even tipped his hat as the first baseman roped his sixth-inning double.

After the game, fellow slugger Aaron Judge had no choice but to give Guerrero credit for burying his team.

“That was impressive tonight,” Judge said. “I wish it was against somebody else so I could watch it on TV. That’s the type of player he is. He can take over a game. ... I was more impressed, too, with two strikes, shooting a double down the right field line.”

Dave Roberts catches heat for pulling Kershaw

The perfect game is the rarest achievement for a starting pitcher. In the World Series era (since 1903), only 21 MLB pitchers have thrown one, and no one has retired 27 batters in a row since Félix Hernández in 2012.

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw had a chance to put his name in the history books yesterday in Minnesota but was pulled by manager Dave Roberts after pitching seven perfect innings. Kershaw had thrown only 80 pitches.

Roberts’s decision was (predictably) met with outrage from all sorts of baseball observers. But Kershaw said he understood the call:

“Blame it on the lockout,” he said. “Blame it on my not picking up a ball for three months [during the offseason].

“I knew going in that my pitch count wasn’t going to be 100. It’s a hard thing to do, to come out of a game when you’re doing that. We’re here to win.

This was the right choice.

”

As much as fans might have wanted to see Kershaw go for the perfect game, his health needs to come first—not just for him but for the Dodgers’ long-term outlook this season. He’s coming off a season in which he was plagued by forearm issues. If the Dodgers want a shot at another World Series, they’re going to need Kershaw to be available. After a spring training that was shortened by the lockout, he simply wasn’t going to throw 100 pitches in his first start of the season. It’s a shame, but it’s the truth.

The best of Sports Illustrated

No one knows LSU football as well as Ross Dellenger. In today’s Daily Cover, he looks at the Tigers’ big gamble in hiring Brian Kelly:

“Around the country and across social media, the buzz around Kelly’s hiring has centered on his massive contract, along with quizzical responses over his accent, his dance moves and his peculiar fit on the bayou as a career-long Midwestern coach with New England roots. Those within the building that we spoke with, Kelly included, have seen and heard the jokes and jabs. Some laugh. Others shrug. A few were angered.”

Conor Orr writes that Derek Carr’s contract extension is a sign that the Raiders are finally treating him like a franchise quarterback. … LeBron James’s Lakers tenure has been a disappointment, which is why Rohan Nadkarni says this offseason is extremely important for him and the team. … Justin Fields shared his memories of his former Ohio State teammate Dwayne Haskins with Albert Breer.

Around the Sports World

Gregg Popovich didn’t want to talk about retirement after the Spurs’ loss in the play-in tournament. … Bryson DeChambeau is having hand surgery and may not be recovered in time for next month’s PGA Championship. … U.S. sprinter Allyson Felix is retiring after this season. … The 2023 Winter Classic will be at Fenway Park, the first time the NHL has returned to a venue for the outdoor showcase. … Police had to step in as tensions boiled over in the tunnel after Atlético Madrid and Manchester City’s 0–0 Champions League quarterfinal draw.

SIQ

On this day in 1968, Bob Goalby won the Masters after shooting a six-under 66 in the final round. But he should have been forced into a playoff against Roberto de Vicenzo. Why did de Vicenzo miss out on the playoff?

Yesterday’s SIQ: How many shutouts did MLB career leader Walter Johnson compile?

Answer: 110. Johnson ranks fifth all-time with 531 career complete games, far behind Cy Young’s 749, but Young ranks fourth in shutouts with 76.

Johnson doesn’t have an award named after him like Young, but he was an equally excellent pitcher. He put up some incredible seasons, such as his first MVP season in 1913, when he started 36 games, 29 of which were complete games, and threw 11 shutouts. He posted a minuscule 1.14 ERA over 346 innings and struck out 243 while walking only 38.

But Johnson played for some lousy Senators teams. His Hall of Fame plaque mentions that he “won 414 games with [a] losing team behind him many years.” Washington finished under .500 in 11 of his 21 seasons and was mostly in the basement of the American League until the latter stages of his career (between 1907 and ’23, it finished in second place only twice). The Senators finally turned things around in the twilight of Johnson’s career, though, winning the World Series in ’24 and the AL pennant in ’25.

In his World Series debut against the Giants in 1924, Johnson lost in Games 1 and 5 of the series. But player-manager Bucky Harris turned to Johnson in the ninth inning of Game 7 with the game tied and he threw four scoreless innings as Washington went on to win on a walk-off double in the bottom of the 12th.

From the Vault: April 14, 1969

Neil Leifer/Sports Illustrated

In the few months that I’ve been writing this newsletter and digging through old SI covers, I’ve been floored by some of the incredible art the magazine created, particularly for some of its earliest issues. My favorite I’ve come across thus far is probably from Feb. 24, 1964, in which Muhammad Ali poses with a big stack of cash inside a bank vault.

The cover above, from April 14, 1969, is no great piece of art. In fact, I have no trouble calling it the most hideous of the dozens of covers I’ve looked at this year. All those clashing colors are enough to make your head spin. What a way to usher in professional baseball’s second century.

William Leggett’s introductory essay to open the 1969 baseball preview package points out all the ways the game had changed since the Cincinnati Red Stockings turned pro in 1868:

“This week the second century of professional baseball began, and instead of 20 teams there were 24. Instead of two leagues there were four divisions. One hundred players who were not good enough to make the major leagues in 1968 were suddenly prime properties. Nobody knows what kind of a season it will be because nobody has ever tried to get through a year like this one before. But there are the precedents of two recent seasons when two teams were added, and if what happened then is any measure for 1969 the elements for a spectacular year are present.”

And it was a spectacular year, with the Miracle Mets winning the World Series seven years after their inception.

The cover of SI’s preview may have been ugly, but 1969 also featured one great moment in baseball graphic design. That was the year that MLB introduced the logo that it still uses today.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.