They wore L.A. hats and No. 22 T-shirts, an army of Dodgers-clad, Kershaw-hungry spectators soaking up a view they’d waited for all summer.
About a quarter to seven last Friday night, roughly 30 minutes before a triple-A game with the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City affiliate, Clayton Kershaw walked through the long outfield shadows at Dell Diamond stadium, beginning his standard pregame routine on an evening that was anything but.
Around him, hundreds of Dodgers fans had flocked to the minor league ballpark, shouting Kershaw’s name and showering him with applause throughout a regimented series of stretches, warm-up throws and bullpen tosses.