Dodgers Stadium is iconic, isn't it?

Home to some of baseball's greatest pitchers since it

opened in 1962, and we've all been watching another.

Clayton Kershaw is arguably the best pitcher of his generation,

and could finish his career as the game's greatest ever.

INTERVIEWER: By the time you reach the stadium

and take the mound on a start, what ignites

that competitive drive for you?

First of all, I know I didn't do anything

to deserve the talent that God gave me.

But what a blessing it is to get to throw

a baseball for a living, and I know

I'm very privileged to get to do that.

So with that said, I don't take it for granted,

you know, I want to do everything

I possibly can to make it worth my while,

make it worth God's time, and with that

comes a competitive advantage.

You know?

I think I'm pitching for a lot more than just

winning baseball game, and trying to honor Him

in everything I'm doing, and you know winning is pretty fun too.

So I like doing that.

Three Cy Youngs, an MVP, seven All-Star games,

it stamps greatness, but how do you define excellence?

Yeah, I think when I retire I can look back on all that.

Right now, I've never won a World Series,

our team has been in the playoffs a lot.

This year is no different, I'm on a great team,

and I think that's everybody's goal on there.

I think that's the benefit of getting to go to the playoffs

so many times, that we've had that taste,

and realize that it's worth playing for.

And winning that last game of the season

is what we're all here for.

Give me your go-to pitch, and if you don't mind,

give me the grip.

I mean I throw a fastball the most,

I guess, so just like that.

Forcing a fastball across the laces like that.

If that's coming out right, and if you're throwing that where

you want to, usually everything else kind of works off that.

And the slider.

Yeah, slider, similar to the fastball,

if the horseshoe's on this side for my fastball,

I just rotate the ball up, and put the horseshoe on this side,

and kind of grip the side of it, and just try

to throw straight through the baseball.

I throw that a lot, it's an important pitch for me,

I get guys off my fastball for sure.

The cool thing to me is that very grip has a ripple effect

practically.

Kershaw's Challenge, every strikeout benefiting

the under-privileged.

What is it about the legacy after you

leave the game that is far more reaching than baseball?

I think you said it right there, you

know baseball is going to end someday.

I realize that as soon as you retire, people forget

about you in this game fast.

There's the next young guy coming up

that's always better than you.

So for me, it's just about using baseball as a platform

to do a lot of things.

And my wife really reminds me of that every single day,

Kershaw's Challenge started with her,

and started with a little girl named Hope over in Africa.

Just to see where it's come from then to where it is now,

it's completely God ordained, we didn't have any

of that planned in our lives.

We just wanted to help one girl, and God turned it into this

through the gift of baseball.

That's the legacy that you're after,

being His hands and feet?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that's-- we're all trying to do that,

in whatever aspects of life we're in, whatever job we have,

I think that's our calling is just to--

whatever sphere of influence that God gives you,

to try and make an impact for His Kingdom,

and he gave me baseball to do that.

And thankfully a lot of people like baseball.

And about excellence, you demonstrate that in the way

that you pitch.

What is it, for the church at large,

do you think that we could demonstrate,

even better excellence?

It's a tough question, I think a lot of good--

a lot of things get wrestled around with Christianity

in this day and age, about what it means,

what it stands for, and I think it gets the wrong connotation

all over the world.

So I think, for me, in using baseball and using Jesus' name,

I just really want to focus on him.

I don't want to think about Christianity

or the religious aspect of it, you just

want to focus on Jesus and loving Jesus.

And when you do that, there's so many things

that come off of that that people can understand.

Saying you are a Christian shouldn't turn people off,

you should you should love people well,

and that's Jesus' first commandment.

What's most uniquely exceptional about the Christ

that you follow?

That's a great question.

I mean, I think first and foremost

that when you look at every other religion

all over the world, it's works based,

you have to earn your way to the Kingdom.

With Jesus it's so different, because we didn't do anything

to deserve Him.

You know, He literally died for us and saved us.

There's nothing else like that in the world,

there's no other god like that, that's why I believe in Him.

And I'm thankful it's not to me, because I

fail every single day, but he's there to give us grace,

and that's an amazing thing.