Clayton Kershaw - Early Life

Early Life

Kershaw attended Highland Park High School, where he established himself as an elite high school prospect in 2006 when he posted a 13–0 record with an ERA of 0.77, and recorded 139 strikeouts in 64 innings. In a playoff game against Justin Northwest High School, Kershaw pitched an all-strikeout perfect game. He was selected by USA Today as "High School Baseball Player of the Year", and was also the Gatorade National Player of the Year for baseball.

Entering the 2006 MLB Draft, Kershaw was considered the top high-schooler available. The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Kershaw with the 7th overall pick in the draft. He turned down a scholarship at Texas A&M to sign with the Dodgers, with a bonus estimated at $2.3 million. The $2.3 million bonus was the largest to any Dodgers amateur at the time, which was eventually topped by Zach Lee in the 2010 MLB Draft.

Read more about this topic:  Clayton Kershaw

Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:

    Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.
    —Gerald Early (b. 1952)

    To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. It is not the part of men, but of fanatics, or of mathematicians, if you will, to say, that, the shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in want, or sitting high. Since our office is with moments, let us husband them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)