Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw Doesn't Remember What Went into AZ Pool Party Celebration
On September 19, 2013, in the first year of this decade-long stretch of dominance by the Dodgers, Los Angeles beat the Diamondbacks, 7-6, at Chase Field in Phoenix to clinch the NL West title.
As part of the team's celebration, they ended up partying in the Chase Field pool, much to the chagrin of some grumpy Diamondbacks.
This week, the Dodgers have the chance to clinch the West in Arizona again, heading into a three-game series with a magic number of 2 over the Padres. If they do clinch in Phoenix again, though, don't expect a repeat of the pool party, as Bill Plunkett reports in the Orange County Register.
“Are we jumping in the pool? Probably not. If it’s going to cause that much trouble,” [Clayton] Kershaw said. “Unless they tell us not to do it."
According to Kershaw, the idea of jumping in the pool never crossed the Dodgers' minds in 2013 until the DBacks made a big deal of telling them not to do it. At that point, while Kershaw says it wasn't meant to be "disrespectful to anyone," it was clearly an act of defiance.
“Honestly, what I remember is that wasn’t even in our mindset,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw said Sunday. “We didn’t have any intentions of doing that – until they said, ‘Do not jump in our pool.’ We were like, ‘No, you can’t tell us what to do.’
“The message got down to us that they didn’t want us in their pool. If they hadn’t said anything, I don’t think we would have even thought of it. But they did and we did it. … If they hadn’t said anything, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”
Kershaw was 25 back then. Yasiel Puig was 22. And the Dodgers had come back from being in last place in late June to win the division handily. There was a youthful exuberance magnified by a huge sense of accomplishment.
This year's team is better than that 2013 team, and they have higher expectations. They will celebrate when they clinch the division, because, as Kershaw says, "It’s OK to enjoy team accomplishments – no matter how many times you’ve done it – because there are a lot of guys around this league who will never get to do that."
But that celebration probably won't come in the Chase Field pool, Kershaw says.
“If we’re not going to jump in the pool, I don’t care. It’s just funny to me that they care so much.”
