Clayton Kershaw reads "Bigger Than Me" to children at Los Angeles library for Dodgers Foundation

[Music] are you excited my name is John Z I'm City librarian here at the LA Public Library I work here and welcome to the library we are thrilled that each of you are here today we are super thrilled that the Dodgers are here we're so excited that Ks are here welcome thank you all for being here here uh and the Dodgers are such a wonderful organization here in LA and they love baseball of course cuz they're a baseball team and they're really good at it they love winning and they're also fortunately really good at that too and they love libraries and they love reading and they also love Los Angeles and they do a lot of good here in Los Angeles in addition to playing baseball so that we can be really good fans and wear these awesome hats and shirts uh to support them uh and they have a great organization called the Dodgers Foundation which allows the Dodgers to do really good things in the community and that includes encouraging kids to read and use libraries and they do a great job of that and the head of that organization is someone I'm going to introduce now and not only introduce her but thank her for all of the great work that she and the Dodgers do and that is the president and CEO of the Dodgers Foundation Nicole Whitman [Applause] thank you Don and welcome everyone to the library I want to say thank you first and foremost do I need it I'm a screamer first and foremost to Stacy Lieberman president of the library foundation and to immani I know he's here somewhere as well for this partnership that we've had so for so many years that allows us access to libraries and this opportunity to do these story times we've had 13 story times this year alone and so we keep going and we've been sponsors of the library Foundation summer reading series but I will say that today is extra special because 6 years ago we stood in this very same place and launched our La read program really focused on igniting the love of reading and young people in Los Angeles so today we feel like we're celebrating a big anniversary and we're back where it all started so thank you again for opening these doors to us and thank you John um who was here with us 6 years ago as well so this is uh really really awesome um I am thrilled as John said today that the Kershaw are joining us again um Clayton and Ellen have been amazing supporters of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation but I like to say of Los Angeles the entire time that Clayton has played here he's such a phenomenal pitcher but I love that they're both amazing philanthropists in their own right with their own organization and so today they join us to do the reading of bigger than me um bigger than me is actually written for those that do not know by Ellen's sister and hi bottom and so we think this book has been really special in our story time series and they're joined by Charlie Callie p and Cooper today too so I'm really excited that the whole family is here so I'm going to let them take it away thanks everyone again for being here thank um hi everybody hi so we're going to read this book called bigger than me and this is a story it's it's really about Charlie who is my first son and Ellen sister and wrote it and it's about um his life growing up in the big leagues but really it's about doing something for something more than yourself okay so we're going to read the book Ellen's going to show you the pictures cuz I'm not great at reading backwards and then um we'll have some questions after does that sound good okay so this is called bigger than me and this is from Charlie's perspective okay I guess you could say I've loved the game of baseball since before I was born you see it's a big part of me it's one of the first things I learned about baseball is one of the first things I love not the mushy kind of love of course I mean the sand lot in the summertime endless endings of hits and slides and dirt kind of love you might say it's impossible to love something since before you were born but I'm here I'm here to tell you that it's possible that's my story and it's bigger than me my name's Charlie uh but before me there was another little boy named Clayton that's my dad people that knew my dad knew when he was my age say that I'm a lot like him we look the same we're built the same we even have the same funny Twirls in our hair some people say watching me get bigger is like watching my dad all over again and of course there's baseball my Dad loved baseball since before he can remember so you see my love for the game it's a whole lot bigger than me people ask me what's it like growing up with a dad like my dad to some people he's a big deal I just shrug my shoulders to me he's just dad he's a lot like me just bigger than me kids learn to crawl and walk and run in all sorts of different places me I learned all these things on a baseball field but not just a baseball field you might find in a community park a big baseball field with bright lights thousands of seats and the best dirt and grass you've ever seen for a little guy growing up in the big leaves everything has always been bigger than me but my dad made sure I didn't miss it he would say you see Charlie figuring out when things are bigger than you that's an important part of life you got to see you got to know that there's a whole lot of things bigger than us my sister she's bigger than me too she had quite an arm when we were little when I was one and she was three dad was having a big deal Kind of Night at the Ballpark fans lined up early and waited to get their very own Bobble h and get this that bobblehead had dad's head on it bouncing up and down and all around because sis and I were such a big deal to Dad we got to throw the first pitch sis threw the ball as hard as she could and I just sat there on the mound passy and mouth like a bum on a log I guess she did pretty well because the crowd went wild as dad caught the toss and cow it over to the mou he scooted me up see Charlie's baseball baseball is a whole lot bigger than you a whole lot bigger than me as I grew so did my love for the game we traveled everywhere my mama my sister and my brothers just to be with Dad we saw every ballpark in the country the really cool old ones the bright and shiny new ones and everything in between at times it must have been hard for Mom hauling us from seed to shining seed but she did it we did it we all get it together because like Mom said this is a lot bigger than us this story is a lot bigger than us God is doing something bigger and better than we can imagine when you love a game so much the hardest part is the losses and we saw plenty of them but I can tell you this win or lose dad was still dad he left it at the field and turned the page of course some losses sting more than others the big ones the one that happen when it really matters the kind of loss that knocks the wind out of you and leaves a scar or at least for a little while these are the moments that caught my attention his dad kept going he never gave up he got back up dusted himself off and started again it's bigger than this Charlie it's bigger than a loss even if it hurts like the ti the story is bigger than me he said but for every loss there even more winds and sometimes these winds happed on the biggest stage of the perfect time I was big enough to see it all unfold when the biggest wind happened I was dressed head to toe in baseball clothes as I called them anything blue white and baseball to the guys in The Dugout that included this was the World Series the biggest show of course this was the biggest show for me too I've never run more bases or demonstrated more perfect slides before the first pitch and after the final out bat he could find me trotting from Base to Base sliding in the home covered in dir when that moment came when the final out was made at the end of the biggest game of the season I watched Dad run across the field with His Hands Held High and I felt it this moment this story it must be bigger than baseball it must be bigger than me baseball's great that would say I love it I'm thankful I get to play it but one of these one of these days Charlie hope be a long time from now baseball's going to end and hopefully we have something that will continue on walk after we're gone that's a really big thought for a little guy like me to understand but I think I'm starting to see what he's talking about before I was born mom and dad started dreaming about doing something something bigger than themselves that dream started in Africa when Mom went on a trip to Zambia it started with a little girl named Hope who needed just that hope the story started there and got a whole lot bigger dad says it got a whole lot bigger because of baseball baseball gave dad an opportunity to help his whole life this story hope story my story it's a whole lot bigger than me so that's when something started something bigger than Dad says it's about taking something we love and doing something with it something bigger something that lasts a long time even longer than my love for the game a lot of baseball seasons have come and gone since that dream in Africa became a reality now it's a part of what we do as a family I get to meet a lot of kids who look a lot like me they love school and sports and playing outside I bet some of them even like getting dirty sliding in a home plate just like me the older I get the more it makes sense to me there's a lot of things that are bigger than me dad says it's because a bigger story it's more than baseball it's more than the wins and losses the greatest moments and the toughest days it's about taking a look around seeing where you are and using your gifts to make where you are a little better for the people around you dad says that's learning to see Baseball part of the Bigg story I still have a lot of growing up to do but from all I've seen it's safe to say that it's a whole lot bigger than I bet you're a lot like me I bet there's something you love to do just like my family loves baseball dad says we love it and we could do it because if you guessed it is a part of the story that's a lot bigger than us I wonder about you I wonder what you're good at what you love take it from me I bet it's part of a bigger story I bet it's bigger thank you I want to take a couple of questions but before I do Does anybody have anything that they love to do it doesn't have it can be anything can somebody tell me yeah what do you like to do basketball basketball yeah what do you like to do soccer soccer okay what about something that's not a sport does anybody love something that's not a drawing and crafting I love that what else yeah I like sco you like scooting I so to these guys all right give me one more good one one more yeah what you got um AR I don't I don't want all right last one yeah what do you got video game okay so when this book's talking about making those things bigger than just that what what do you think that means how do you make something like that bigger how do you do that what does that look like it's a tough question do you have an answer for that yeah you want to try practice Yeah practice but like maybe how do you make it how do you help other people with that or what do you do to make it better for other people yeah yeah working hard I love that yeah um you and you have to believe in yourself I love that I love that can I get one more yeah support support yes that's all good guys cuz that's what this book is about like there's so many great things in this world that we get to try and do and play and stuff that we love to do but the biggest thing is is how we impact other people with how we do that how we treat other people how we play with our teammates how we play with our classmates that's the most important thing it's not about the wins and losses it's about how we treat people and how we interact with our friends and family and everybody around us our teachers all right so that's my little Spiel youall have any questions for me it can be about anything almost anything baseball yeah what do you got how did you get into basball how did I get into baseball that's a great question I just kind when I was your age guys I just love playing I started playing in the backyard and then started playing t-ball and um I just kept playing and playing it I just loved it it was just something that God gave me a passion for early in my life and I I still love it it's great it's a lot of fun yeah what else do you what else do I do that's a great question not a lot not a lot I basically play baseball and I'm a dad it's really about it and a husband too so but yeah that's really that's really about it um I don't have a ton of other Hobbies but um these guys have a lot of hobbies we played monster trucks today we played a lot of monster trucks C likes to draw a lot so we draw um even out here by the beach we Tred surfing yesterday for the first time so that was pretty fun I was not very good at that what else yeah how long you how long do we practice to day uh that's a good question so we do it a lot I mean we're at the field for a long time every day um I I don't have an exact amount but it's at least a few hours every day yeah for sure yeah I know hour right yeah how often you play so we play guys listen to this we play 162 games every year and we play them in 180 days so it's a lot of games it's basically like a full school year of games with no weekends couple maybe like two or three more yeah two or three more okay M yeah do you play with your kids do we play yeah we play all sorts of stuff we play so he's chy do you like baseball no well these two like baseball a lot and then call what's your favorite thing to do Callie likes volleyball yeah volleyball gymnastics yeah yeah more question one more yeah okay so he asked like when I got to be with the Dodgers or for um how old was I so he asked me how old was I when I was on the Dodgers so I got drafted when I was 18 out of high school and then I did like the minor leagues which is like before you get to the major leagues for a couple years and then uh was with the Dodgers in 2008 so gosh it's a it's a lot of years 16 or 17 years now so it's been it's been a lot of fun last yeah uh I don't know but be getting a special from thew family so first we're going to do a group photo if you all want to stay on your bottoms but turn around and face this way and