Should the Dodgers go on to win the World Series this season, and probably even if they don’t, the story of Clayton Kershaw’s opening day will be told over and over again. Stories will be woven about how he took matters into his own hands, willing his team nearly singlehandedly to victory over the rival Giants, putting the baseball world on-notice that this year truly was special.

Stories like this are one of the great things about baseball, and all of sports.

I was reminded of one such story on Easter Sunday, the day before Kershaw’s gem, by my Grandmother. Grandma is a huge Dodger fan who raised a family of Dodger-fan boys, my father and his four brothers. My poor Auntie (who, for us cousins, goes simply by “Auntie”) was the only girl of the bunch.  It must have been pretty overwhelming for her being the only girl in that family. But I digress.

Sandy Koufax visited a restaurant in Morro Bay and gave the Main family a thrill. By publicity still.Wikiwatcher1 at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

The building, made of boulder-sized rock facing, was pointed out to me often by my father as we drove by. Anyone who has worked in a restaurant for any length of time knows that stories about customers and happenings flow out of these places.

One night, my grandmother was there along with my Uncle Matt, a teenager at the time, who was bussing tables. Matt came rushing up to his mother.

“I think that’s Sandy Koufax,” he said.

My Grandmother wasn’t so sure.

“Back then you didn’t have pictures of everybody all over the place,” she said. “Now, you can look up anybody and see their face, but back then, you weren’t so sure.”

So she questioned it.

“How do you know for sure,” she asked my Uncle Matt.

“When he got out of the car, he closed the door with his left hand,” said Matt.

Classic.

It turned out the restaurant patron was, in fact, Sandy Koufax — the Dodger legend who threw out the first pitch on Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. Koufax had a home in Templeton, CA in the 1970’s. Templeton is about 25 miles from Morro Bay and the greatest left arm in baseball history was the one that closed that door and ate at the restaurant that night. My uncle, a huge Dodger fan, was right.

Family lore is a great thing. In our family of Dodger fans, this story is one that my Grandma loves to tell. One that I really love to hear.

Alex Avila culminated the event when in the 7th inning of an Angel/Tiger matchup a mid-90s Jered Weaver (14-5, 1.94 ERA) fastball whirled inches from his brow. What followed was the hot tempered Weaver being ejected and a Tigers bewildering 3-2 win.

How on earth did things get there?

A 3rd inning two run homerun by Magglio Ordonez began the affair.

After smashing a breaking ball 400 hundred feet to left field, the veteran 3rd baseman paused in the batter’s box in Barry Bonds fashion before charismatically tottering around the bases.

Weaver didn’t agree with the showboating.

“There’s a level of respect in this game,” Weaver said. “I’ve never shown anybody up or ever done anything like that. When you’re standing up at the plate and do what he did, I don’t agree with that.”

Lost in the fracas was a quiet no-hit effort mounting by Justin Verlander (14-5, 2.34 ERA). Just four outs shy of joining Nolan Ryan, Bob Fellar and Sandy Koufax as the only pitcher to throw 3 no-hitters since 1900, the power pitching ace lost his chance giving up a bunt hit to Erick Aybar.

Unfortunately, a walk and a base hit by Maicer Izturis scored 2 runs in the inning, but most unfortunate, was the forearm shiver Aybar landed Verlander at home. Both benches nearly cleared and the swelling personification of youth continued to evolve.

By that point Weaver had been tossed and rationality kicked to the curb—after sitting down 12 straight Tigers post-Ordonez with a dominating mix of fastballs, changeups and sliders, the 26-year-old charismatic competitor completely lost his way in a whim of angry indiscretion.

A full count solo shot to right by Tigers 2nd baseman Carlos Guillen is where things got silly. Standing in the batter’s box for the entire shot to right, Guillan tossed his bat and stared down Weaver. The two engaged with heated words and quickly the game took on a life of its own.

Home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt warned both benches and attempted to maturely dim the grade school bib wearing shin dig. Sadly to no avail, as the Aybar incident proved the American athletes spoiled and provocative need for Hollywood attention comes first and always foremost.

For Weaver, the answer of retribution was simple.

“After what Guillen did, I thought that just kind of crossed the line. I’m not just going to go out there and take that. There’s a line that needs to be drawn. If they want to play the game that way, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

But for Tigers 3-time all-star, Guillen saw things differently.

“That’s the first time I’ve done that,” Guillen said. “But the way he reacted to Magglio … we’re a team. I apologize to his teammates. That’s not the way I play. But it’s part of the game.”

The point made is that we all see things in a different light, but most necessary is our understanding of our polar opposites that we might grow and reverberate with wisdom.

For 15th year veteran Torii Hunter the situation was a poor display of professionalism.

“All that is stupid,” Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said. “Everybody was stupid. That was unprofessional on both sides.”

Suspensions will be sought out by league officials affecting two teams currently fighting for their playoff survival. And despite Weaver or Guillan feeling justified in their actions will be a perfect slap on the wrist to two young stars. 

For Alex Avila, the simplicity of life was a spared element in the lucky turn of a Bob Gibson curse.