Sports
Sign my jersey! Everyone wants a Clayton Kershaw souvenir — including his opponents
LOS ANGELES — It was the middle of June, the San Diego Padres were in town for what promised to be a heated series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Joe Musgrove, their injured ace, had one thing on his mind:
Securing a signed Clayton Kershaw jersey.
Major league players often send each other jerseys for personalization, to commemorate friendship or admiration or even milestones. But Musgrove had done that only a handful of times in his nine years as a major leaguer — all for former teammates he was once close with, never for a prominent member of the Padres’ biggest rival.
“This is the first that I’ve sent one over in admiration for what someone has done for the game,” said Musgrove, who grew up a Padres fan before ultimately pitching for the club. “I know he’s flooded with them now, and it might seem like a lot, but he’s made a big impact on this game — not only as a player, but for the way he handles himself.”
Kershaw will make his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium on Friday, in what we now know will be one of the last appearances of his career. But even before the news of his impending retirement became official Thursday, the likelihood of it was high enough for Major League Baseball to extend him a special invitation to this year’s All-Star Game. And for a number of opposing players to seek opportunities to pay respect in their own way, whether it’s offering praise, expressing gratitude or, often, seeking autographs.
Kershaw, 37, has noticed that jersey requests have “slightly increased from years past” but stressed it’s “nothing crazy.” Sometimes a home series will go by and nobody will ask. Others, he’ll be flooded with them. “It’s like they all talk,” Kershaw said. He signs them all, either by listing his accomplishments — 3X NL Cy Young, 2014 NL MVP, 2X WS Champ! as he wrote on one for Colorado Rockies starter Kyle Freeland — or scribbling a brief message. In his mind, it wasn’t long ago that he was on the other side.
“It’s amazing how fast that flips, you know?” Kershaw told ESPN last week. “You don’t think that you’re the old guy until it happens, and then you are. It happens fast.”
WHEN KERSHAW SIGNED his fourth consecutive one-year contract with the Dodgers in March, he was considered a luxury. Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki had already been added. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow were coming back healthy. Shohei Ohtani was on track to return as a two-way player. The likes of Emmet Sheehan, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May were next in line.
But when Kershaw rejoined the rotation in the middle of May, in the wake of offseason knee and toe surgeries, he helped stabilize a staff that had once again absorbed an avalanche of injuries. In August, as the Dodgers’ rotation began to round into form, he found another level, winning all five of his starts while posting a 1.88 ERA. Kershaw is throwing the slowest fastball of his career, offsetting it with a slider that oftentimes lacks its traditional bite and resorting to more inventiveness than ever, even with the occasional eephus pitch. And yet his record is 10-2 and his ERA is 3.53.
“He’s making jokes about how he’s only throwing 86, 87 — and he’s still getting outs,” San Francisco Giants starter Logan Webb said. “To me that’s the most impressive thing.”
Webb was a 12-year-old in Northern California when Kershaw made his major league debut. His high school years coincided with a four-year stretch from 2011 to 2014 that saw Kershaw claim three Cy Young Awards and an MVP, accumulate 72 regular-season victories, tally 895⅓ innings and establish himself as one of the greatest of his era. Competing against him, as a fellow frontline starter on a division rival, hasn’t taken any of the shine away.
Said Webb: “He seems to amaze me every single time.”
Two months ago, Webb shared an All-Star team with Kershaw for the first time and was adamant about securing a jersey from him, even though, he said, “I usually feel awful asking guys.” On Friday, Webb will watch from the opposite dugout as Kershaw makes what might be the final Dodger Stadium appearance of his career, depending on how he factors into L.A.’s October plans.
The Dodgers boast a six-man rotation at the moment, and two of those members, Yamamoto and Snell, are basically guaranteed to start in a best-of-three wild-card series. The third spot would go to Ohtani, unless the Dodgers surprise outsiders by deploying him as a reliever. Then there’s Glasnow, who was lavished with a $130 million-plus extension to take down important starts, and Sheehan, a promising right-hander who has been effective out of the bullpen.
Kershaw wasn’t healthy enough to contribute to last year’s championship run and wants nothing more than to help with this one. But he’s also realistic.
“We’ll see,” Kershaw said. “We’ll see what happens. My job is just to pitch well. Whatever decision they make, or if I get to make a start or do whatever — they’re going to make the best decision for the team. I’ll understand either way. Obviously making it hard for them is what I want to do.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts doesn’t know what role Kershaw might play on a postseason roster, but he said “there’s a place for him” on it.
“The bottom line is I trust him,” Roberts said. “And for me, the postseason is about players you trust.”
ANDREW ABBOTT SAT alongside Cincinnati Reds teammate Chase Burns in Dodger Stadium’s first-base dugout on Aug. 26 and couldn’t understand what he was seeing.
“Is that a changeup?” he asked.
Kershaw famously doesn’t throw many changeups, largely because he has never been confident in his ability to do so. But suddenly Abbott was watching him uncork a pitch that traveled in the low 80s and faded away from opposing right-handed hitters, the continuation of a split-change he began to incorporate a couple years ago. To Abbott, it spoke to the ingenuity that has extended Kershaw’s effectiveness.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Abbott said. “He can just figure things out on the fly.”
The Reds’ third-year starting pitcher had shared a clubhouse with Kershaw for the first time during the All-Star Game in Atlanta this summer. He wanted so badly to pick his brain about pitch sequencing, but he also didn’t want to waste Kershaw’s time; he made small talk about their Dallas ties and left it at that.
Six weeks later, when the Reds visited Dodger Stadium, Abbott made it a point to provide a visiting clubhouse attendant with a Kershaw jersey to be sent to the other side for a signature. He already had one of Christian Yelich, who represented his first strikeout; Edwin Diaz, the brother of his former teammate, Alexis; Joey Votto, a Reds legend; and Aaron Judge, arguably the best hitter on the planet. Abbott initially didn’t want to bother Kershaw, worried that he might just be adding to an overwhelming pile, but he couldn’t run the risk of missing what might be his final opportunity.
“I watched Kersh since I was a kid,” Abbott said. “I mean, I was 9 when he debuted. I just like to have guys that I’ve watched and I’ve kind of idolized. Those are the ones I go after. It’s cool that you’re in the job with him, too.”
After spending the past four years pitching for two of their biggest rivals — first the Padres, then the Giants — Snell signed a five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers over the offseason and told president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman that he wanted his locker next to Kershaw’s. Snell’s locker neighbored Kershaw’s in spring training, and he now resides just two lockers down inside Dodger Stadium’s newly renovated home clubhouse.
As a fellow left-hander, Snell has tried to soak up as much as he can from watching Kershaw, specifically how he utilizes his slider. He has learned, though, that a lot of his success is driven by his mindset.
“He never gives in,” Snell said. “He’s a competitor. And you can’t, like, train that or teach that. You either have it or you don’t. And he’s very elite at competing. The game comes, and he’s the best version of himself.”
Snell arrived in the major leagues as a 23-year-old former first-round pick. But he did not believe he would stay very long, so he made it a point to gather as many personalized jerseys as he could. He already has two framed Kershaw jerseys hanging on an office wall littered with other sports memorabilia, but the end of his first year with the Dodgers has left him wondering if he has enough.
Said Snell: “I might get me another one.”
TO THOSE WHO have observed Kershaw throughout his career, the thought that he would even allow himself to be miked up while pitching in a game — let alone revel in it — stood as a clear indication that this would probably be it. Roberts, who managed the National League All-Stars earlier this summer, noticed a more reflective, appreciative side to Kershaw even before he took the mound for his 11th Midsummer Classic.
Roberts noticed it when Kershaw addressed his NL teammates before the game, reminding them this was an opportunity to honor those who got them there. He noticed it 13 days before that, on the night of July 2, when Kershaw finished a six-inning outing with the 3,000th strikeout of his career and spilled onto the field to acknowledge the fans. Most of all, he has noticed it through the ease with which Kershaw seems to carry himself this season. “The edges,” Roberts said, “aren’t as hard anymore.”
“He knows he’s had a tremendous career, and I think that now he’s making it a point. He’s being intentional about taking in every moment.”
Kershaw allowed himself to savor his 3,000th strikeout — a milestone only 19 other pitchers have reached — and made a conscious effort to take in every moment at this year’s All-Star Game. His wife, Ellen, and their four children have made it a point to travel for every one of his starts this season, even when Texas schools restarted earlier this month, adding a layer of sentimentality to the stretch run.
But for as much as Kershaw would like to soak in every inning remaining in his major league career, he can’t. The season keeps going, the stakes keep ratcheting up, and Kershaw believes in the link between dismissing success and maintaining an edge. “The minute you savor, the minute you think about success, you’re content,” he said. But that also means he can’t truly enjoy the end.
There’s a cruelty in that.
“Yeah,” Kershaw said, “but that’s OK. Because you want to go out competing, just like you always did. At the end of the day, being healthy, being able to compete and pitch well, being on a great team — that’s all you can ask for. If you do all of the other stuff, you become content or satisfied or whatever it is. Then it’s all downhill.”
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.
LAS VEGAS — Arizona freshman Koa Peat had a chip on his shoulder before making his college debut Monday.
Feeling a bit neglected in Switzerland while playing for the USA 19-and-under team, the three-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year said he was going to remind people that he was one of the best incoming freshmen, despite not playing in the McDonald’s All-American Game or at the Nike Hoop Summit.
“I feel like I’ve been kind of forgotten,” Peat said during an earlier interview with Hoops HQ. “I’m just trying to remind people and show them what I’m about.”
And that’s exactly what he did Monday, announcing his presence in college basketball with authority during No. 13 Arizona’s 93-87 win over third-ranked and reigning champion Florida in the Hall of Fame Series inside the jam-packed T-Mobile Arena.
“It was a coming out party for him, so to speak,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “Everyone’s known about him, but no one’s really, really studied him and watched him, and he’s a special player.”
The 18-year-old defied his freshman status in his nationally televised collegiate debut, leading all scorers with 30 points and adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He became the second Big 12 freshman to debut with 30 or more points, joining Kansas State‘s Michael Beasley, who had 32 in his debut in 2007.
Jaden Bradley was also impressive, scoring 27 points, including 11 of Arizona’s final 18 points, to help seal the win. He added five assists, making him and Peat the second pair of Arizona teammates in the past 30 seasons to each have at least 25 points and five assists in the same game. They join Chase Budinger and Nic Wise, who did it against Stanford on March 7, 2009.
Peat is a part of a family that has produced seven Division I athletes. He’s the son of Todd Peat, a guard in the NFL for nine seasons, and his brother, Andrus, is a three-time Pro Bowl selection who spent much of his time in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and is now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Koa Peat’s athleticism was on full display late in the second half with the score tied at 70-all when he delivered back-to-back thunderous dunks, sending the crowd of 16,704 into a frenzy and giving Arizona a 74-70 lead. He gave the Wildcats momentum for a game-ending 23-17 run to provide the difference.
Peat said spending his summer playing for Lloyd while representing Team USA with the 19-and-under World Cup team that won gold in Switzerland helped prepare him for his first season at the collegiate level.
“He ran some of the same sets at USA, so coming to U of A in the fall, it was pretty easy to adapt to those,” said Peat, who was the national team’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder. “I think what really helped me [tonight] was just the practices. We practiced really hard throughout the week, leading up to this game. And I’m just grateful to have coaches and teammates that put me in positions to be good, and especially [Bradley]. He just makes my game so easy … he’s one of the best point guards in the country, if not the best point guard in the country.”
Thomas Haugh led Florida with 27 points, Xaivian Lee scored 14, and Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten each had 11.
Ivan Kharchenkov, who shook off an injury late in the first half that sent him to the locker room, finished with 12 points for the Wildcats.
Arizona shot 49.2% (30-of-61) from the field, while Florida’s poor second-half shooting (14-of-38, 36.8%) sealed its fate in becoming the first reigning champion to lose its season opener since Syracuse in 2003-04.
The Gators opened the game strong, pushing their lead to 12 points after hitting 11 of their first 16 shots. But the Wildcats clamped down on defense and held Florida to 5-for-16 shooting the rest of the half while going on a 32-16 run by hitting 11 of 18 shots down the stretch.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
What an MLB postseason!
After a thrilling month of playoff action — so thrilling, in fact, that it stretched into early November — it’s time for our 2025 MLB All-October team.
Though Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned World Series MVP honors for his incredible performance during the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ seven-game triumph over the Toronto Blue Jays, that doesn’t tell the whole story of the month. So to honor the best from every stage of the postseason, let’s hand out hardware to a roster of October stars.
From wild-card-round sensations to World Series standouts, here are the players our ESPN MLB panel of experts voted as the best of the best at every position along with some award hardware for the brightest stars of October.
2025 All-October Team
Catcher: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
Why he’s here: Raleigh’s record-setting regular season continued right into October as he belted five home runs and posted a 1.081 OPS before Seattle’s postseason run ended in Game 7 of the ALCS.
Honorable mentions: Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays; Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays
Why he’s here: If the Blue Jays would have won one more game during the World Series, the introduction of this story would have been all about Guerrero and his incredible October exploits. The Blue Jays’ superstar hit an incredible .412 with a 1.330 OPS during the postseason, delivering signature moment after signature moment while leading Toronto to where it hadn’t been in three decades.
Honorable mentions: Michael Busch, Chicago Cubs; Josh Naylor, Seattle Mariners
2B: Nico Hoerner, Chicago Cubs
Why he’s here: In a down year for the position, Hoerner had the highest OPS (.973) of all second baseman during the postseason while playing stellar defense as the Cubs dispatched the Padres and went on to force a Game 5 against the Brewers in the NLDS.
How little production did second basemen provide this October? One voter chose Miguel Rojas as his pick for the position solely based on one all-important Game 7 swing.
Honorable mentions: Jorge Polanco, Seattle Mariners; Miguel Rojas, Los Angeles Dodgers
3B: Ernie Clement, Toronto Blue Jays
Why he’s here: Clement was instrumental in the Blue Jays’ run, providing consistent production at the plate and solid defense on the field. His 1.032 postseason OPS topped all third baseman and his 30 hits were not only the most of any player this October but set a major league record for most hits in a single postseason.
Honorable mention: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians
SS: Andres Gimenez, Toronto Blue Jays
Why he’s here: The pickings were pretty slim at shortstop and Gimenez earned this spot more for his clutch hits than his overall numbers.
Honorable mention: Trevor Story, Boston Red Sox
OF: Addison Barger, Toronto Blue Jays
OF: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees
OF: Jackson Chourio, Milwaukee Brewers
Why they’re here: If you didn’t know the name Addison Barger before this, you do now. The 25-year-old, who was called up from the majors in mid-April, had a breakout postseason, slashing .367/.411/.583 with three home runs, nine RBIs and a 1.025 OPS while also making a number of diving catches in right field. But the moment that will ensure Barger’s name is remembered? His pinch-hit grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series — which came after he had slept on a teammate’s pullout couch the night before.
Judge’s postseason performances had long been under scrutiny because of his checkered playoff history compared to his stellar regular-season numbers. But that should all be put to rest after this year, as he accumulated 13 hits in 26 at-bats over seven games and finally met his October moment in the form of a monster three-run, tying home run in a crucial ALDS Game 3 to keep New York’s season alive.
The 21-year-old Chourio came out swinging this October, helping Milwaukee to a hard-won NLDS victory over the Cubs, with a double and two-run single in the first game and a three-run home run — which he hit off a 101.4 mph fastball, the fastest pitch for a postseason home run in the pitch tracking era — to cement another victory in Game 2. Though he didn’t light the world on fire when the top-seeded Brewers were swept in the NLCS, Chourio did hit their lone home run and drove in half of their runs in the series.
Honorable mention: Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners; Kerry Carpenter, Detroit Tigers
DH: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
Why he’s here: It was something of a mixed October for Ohtani, with his .254/.397/.714 playoff slash line heavily carried by a couple of standout games. But those performances just so happened to be two of the best single-game showings in the history of October baseball: a three-home run game (while pitching a gem on the mound) in L.A.’s NLCS clincher and an all-time World Series Game 3 in which he got on base nine times in the Dodgers’ 18-inning triumph.
Honorable mention: George Springer, Toronto Blue Jays
SP: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Los Angeles Dodgers
SP: Trey Yesavage, Toronto Blue Jays
Why they’re here: There was simply no better pitcher in the sport than Yamamoto this October, as the Dodgers ace authored one of the best postseasons in recent history. Before he won World Series MVP honors by winning three games in the Fall Classic, Yamamoto was masterful in a complete-game NLCS Game 2 gem against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Yesavage bursted onto the scene this October in a way rarely seen before, becoming the World Series Game 1 starter just six weeks after making his MLB debut. He provided Toronto with two of the best starts of the postseason — Game 2 against the Yankees and Game 5 against the Dodgers.
Honorable mentions: Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers; Blake Snell, Los Angeles Dodgers; Tyler Glasnow, Los Angeles Dodgers; Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees; Cristopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies
RP: Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee Brewers
RP: Will Vest, Detroit Tigers
Why they’re here: Misiorowski played a crucial role on the mound for Milwaukee as a starter coming out of the pen to throw bulk innings of high-leverage relief — with his first eight career postseason pitches clocking in at 102 mph or faster. In 12 innings over three games, he totaled 16 strikeouts while giving up six hits and three runs (two earned) and issuing three walks.
Vest was nearly unhittable in October as Detroit’s primary closer, giving up only two hits — and zero runs, for a 0.00 postseason ERA — and striking out nine over eight innings to help the Tigers beat Cleveland in the wild-card round and stay competitive against Seattle in the ALDS before they ultimately lost in a 15-inning Game 5.
Honorable mentions: Roki Sasaki, Los Angeles Dodgers; Andres Munoz, Seattle Mariners; Louis Varland, Toronto Blue Jays
All-October award winners
October MVP: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Pitcher of the month: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Best October introduction: Trey Yesavage, Addison Barger
Clutch performer: Yamamoto
The NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi, a company that offers prediction markets on college basketball and football, expressing its concern about the company’s “commitment to contest integrity and the protection of contest participants,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.
In the letter, dated Oct. 30, NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby asked Kalshi how it monitors collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and activity by prohibited customers, who it considers a prohibited customer, whether it will report integrity concerns to the NCAA and whether the company will cooperate with NCAA investigations.
“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.
The NCAA also asked if Kalshi would ban prediction markets similar to prop bets, which the company began offering this fall.
Prop betting markets, Bearby noted in the letter, heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns.” In March last year, NCAA president Charlie Baker called for a ban on prop bets on college athletes in states with legal sports wagering.
The NCAA also asked Kalshi in the letter to review language on its website that the NCAA says implies a relationship between them.
“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site. We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”
Prediction markets like Kalshi have emerged over the past year and are competing with traditional sportsbooks in the betting market. Kalshi is battling multiple lawsuits by state gambling regulators, who allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues that it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.
In March, Kalshi announced a partnership with IC360, an integrity monitor used by many collegiate and professional leagues.
The NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by players in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. In total, the association has opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.
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