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The MLB circus has packed up and gone home. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will go back to his Hollywood mansion and work out how he’s going to spend his $238 million contract.
But even though Kershaw is all we heard about last week, he’s far from the norm in the cut-throat big leagues.
Dodgers reliever Jamey Wright can attest to Major League Baseball being anything but a glamorous existence.
The 39-year-old has played for 10 clubs and been transferred 13 times in his 18-season career, where only once he’s been on a playoff team.
Until this year, he hadn’t been guaranteed a contract in eight years – an MLB record – meaning he turned up to spring training every March trying to fight for his livelihood.
Wright shares a locker room with Kershaw, but precious little else.
“The glamour part of being in the Major Leagues died a long time ago for me,” Wright told AAP after the Dodgers two-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the launch of America’s MLB season in Sydney on the weekend.
“I’ve experienced it like nobody else. The superstars, they live in homes in LA, play for the Dodgers and they’re there all year round.
“My home is in Dallas, so I’ve never really had the luxury of playing in the same place.
“I live there for four and a half months, spend six months on the road and a month and a half at spring training.
“I’ve got three children. They’re 10, seven and five so they’re in school and they can’t travel with me. It’s real tough.
“I might go a month without seeing them.”
So what has kept Wright going?
The one thing he does share in common with Kershaw.
“The thought of one day being on a team that’s going to the World Series,” he said.
“I’ve dreamt about it since I was five years old.”
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