I was at the game last Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. On the way out, saw two different guys take off their Kershaw jerseys, throw them on the ground, walk away, and other fans walked all over them on the ground. Glad my boys weren’t with me to see that. Kershaw is a great pitcher and really good guy. But as a starter he has a very long routine he goes through before each start, including a lot of long tosses which cannot be duplicated when he is a reliever. Most Dodger fans blame Roberts and management, but the whole team chokes in the playoffs. Given the ticket prices, wouldn’t be surprised to see a drop in attendance next year.
hsbaseball101 posted:Wechson posted:bballman posted:Kershaw may be one of the best pitchers of all time. Until it comes to the post season. For some reason, he's mediocre at best once the regular season ends...
I cant think of a close second in this department, in any sport really. Possibly James Harden. Other than that, the disparity between regular season Kershaw and post season Kershaw is the most pronounced I've ever seen in an elite level pro athlete.
Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, John Elway, and Lebron James were all failures in the post season until they won multiple times. Kershaw will probably throw a few 1-2 hitters on his way to a WS ring when he's in his late 30s.
If Elway hadn't won in his late career attempt, he would have been the closest example. Jordan and Lebron hugely successful in the post season after a few failures earlier in their career, not a viable comp to me. Payton Manning won half of the Super Bowls he played in.
Manning May have won half his Super Bowl appearances. But he also has the most post season losses in NFL history. Manning is probably the greatest QB ever on a mechanical level. But he has a lot of history of things going wrong from the neck up in the post season.
Manning's problem was his team was not as good as the Patriots and Brady offset the advantage he gave the Colts compared to everyone else. If there is no Brady/Pats he wins 4 or 5 and he might be the hands down goat.
Same for Montana - no Simms and Giants and he wins 6 or 7 as he probably never is displaced by Young. Most people do not know Simms was 2-1 vs. Montana in playoffs. Those Giants teams were the best match for the 49er dynasty going 3-2 in playoffs between 81-90 against them.
Point is - ever great player/team has a rival that is a real test of what they are. For Manning and the Colts the Patriots were just better.