DALLAS — Lew Kennedy was more than happy to talk about the most famous ballplayer he ever coached. But perhaps it's a testament to Clayton Kershaw that Kennedy, when asked about the lefty pitcher's legendary performance for Highland Park High School, needed to ask for clarification.
"Which one?" he joked.
Indeed, Kershaw was as dominant in high school as one might imagine a three-time Cy Young winner would be.
Now, at 35, Kershaw will take the ball for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, looking to chase another World Series title and further etch his place among the game's all-time greats.
But no postseason performance is likely to match the one Kershaw put on display on May 19, 2006, when the Highland Park Scots faced the Justin Northwest Texans in the third round of the Class 4A state playoffs.
Kershaw, the starting pitcher for the Scots that spring evening, faced 15 hitters.
And he struck out every last one of them, completing a perfect game that ended early on a run rule.
Oh, and he also hit a home run to help his cause.
"With talent like that," Kennedy said, "you try not to get in the way. He makes a good coach out of you."
Nearly 20 years later, the hitters who faced Kershaw still remember what happened. Or, for them, what didn't.
"The guy was just gassing it," said Tyler Tillotson, then a senior second baseman for Northwest. "He made us look like little boys. And then he dropped a bomb on us."
Tillotson, like the rest of his teammates, went hitless against Kershaw. But the Texans had entered the game with hope, having narrowly lost to Highland Park the night before. They were no cupcake, and after getting through the first two rounds of the playoffs, they were looking to advance again.
But Kershaw, who threw a fastball into the mid-90s and paired it with devastating off-speed pitches, "made us look like we never played baseball before," said Shane Hardy, another senior for Northwest.
"We were a really good team," Hardy said. "He made a really good team look silly."
Kershaw entered the game with a 0.59 ERA and 109 strikeouts in 47.2 innings. As dominant as he was that season, it wasn't a guarantee he'd dominate Northwest: Kershaw was coming off an injury and it wasn't certain if he'd start. And when he did, it wasn't certain if he'd be sharp.
Kershaw mowed through the first three batters, but the Texans worked him for 17 pitches, including a full count, and they managed to hit three foul balls.
Yes, foul balls were the bar for success that evening.
Northwest made contact six more times, and six more times it was the same story: A foul ball or tip, nothing that would have made it out of the infield.
Northwest coach Che Hendrix, at one point, chirped at the umpire about the strike zone.
"I told him, 'Everything can't be a strike,'" Hendrix said.
The umpire took off his face mask.
"Coach, everything he throws is a strike," he told Hendrix.
In all, Kershaw collected nine strikeouts swinging and six looking, on 70 pitches in five innings.
"He threw three pitches for a strike," Hendrix said. "That makes it difficult at the Major League level. That makes it impossible at the high school level."
The Texans were keeping the game close when Kershaw stepped into the batter's box in the fourth inning and launched a homer over the centerfield wall.
"That basically iced it," Hendrix said.
Highland Park tacked on four runs in the bottom of the fifth to end the game on a run rule.
Earlier, Tillotson had faced Kershaw in the top half of the inning. Like the rest of his teammates, Tillotson struck out in his first at-bat, in the second inning, but he ran the count full, at least giving himself a chance to reach base.
He didn't get much of a chance in the fifth.
Tillotson swung and missed a high inside fastball. He took the second pitch, a curveball, for a ball outside. But Kershaw reared back and blew a fastball past him for strike two. Then the lefty went back to the curveball, and this time it didn't miss.
Tillotson flailed at it and whiffed again, nearly pinwheeling in a circle.
Seventeen years later, Tillotson still laughed at the thought of looking "just absolutely goofy."
"My grandma's brought it up to me," he said, "'Look at how you stupid you look.'"
The loss ended Northwest's season.
Tillotson remembered feeling that he and his teammates would get another crack at Kershaw. Maybe in college. Maybe in the pros. They all had the same dreams.
But it never worked out that way.
The next month, Kershaw was drafted by the Dodgers in the first round. And in many ways, he's become the best pitcher of his generation, a lefty legend in the same breath as Sandy Koufax. He's won three Cy Youngs and a World Series. He's won an MVP.
And he's still going into his mid-30s. This season, he was limited by a shoulder injury, but he still threw 131 innings with a 2.46 ERA. Five years after he retires, he'll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
And the 2006 Northwest Texans, for better or worse, were an early part of his story, even if not many people remembered them.
"There's two different perspectives to that," said Hardy. "One, on the athlete side, you genuinely appreciate the athletic ability of it. Then there's the fan of baseball side. Looking back on it now, it's a neat story to tell. I think I appreciate it even more now, just having time to reflect on it ... you never know how far somebody's going to go."
Said Tillotson, "Not too many people get to say that, to see that first-hand. It's going to be something I remember for the rest of my life."
Last week, Tillotson got a look at a picture of him hitting against Kershaw.
"Dejected to the max lol," he texted back.
Then he quickly sent a follow-up: "That's super cool."
