The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kershaw not just a pitcher
Ace steps up to help battle child sex trafficking.
Clayton Kershaw stared into the distance as he recounted his travels. Standing in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ clubhouse, the world he now pictured was larger than he previously imagined, with more poverty and more suffering, but also with more possibilities.
Two weeks before he reported to spring training, Kershaw was invited to the Dominican Republic’s National Palace and granted an audience with President Danilo Medina. The president listened to his concerns about child sex trafficking in the country and assured him his office would support the International Justice Mission’s efforts.
Baseball made it all possible.
“It was a very eye-opening trip, all the way around,” Kershaw said. “Very fortunate that baseball means so much.”
His meeting with the president was featured on the country’s television news programs. Photographs of him presenting Medina with an autographed jersey were printed in daily newspapers. His message spread.
If Kershaw’s and his wife’s long-standing mission to provide housing and education for African orphans was evidence of what he could do with the wealth he accumulated from playing baseball, his four-day trip to the Dominican Republic was a testament of the influence he could exert in places where the sport is a cultural touchstone. A day after meeting the president, Kershaw participated in a news conference that also included the attorney general of the Dominican Republic and the U.S. ambassador to the island nation.
Even before the back injuries that sidelined him in recent seasons, and before shoulder problems largely limited him to playing catch this spring, the three-time Cy Young Award winner always maintained perspective about his talent, which he considers God-given. He said his view was shaped by his Christian faith.
“I love getting to play this game,” Kershaw said. “But it’s only as important as what you do with it, if that makes sense. There’s so many people you can reach just because you’re gifted with the ability to throw a baseball. I try to remember that and these trips help me.
“There’s nothing I did to deserve to be able to throw a baseball. Those talents were something that were just completely given to me. Yeah, you can work at it and get better at it, but you either can do that or you can’t.”
This particular expedition to the Dominican Republic made him reconsider the boundaries of what he could accomplish.
The scourge of child sex trafficking was brought to Kershaw’s attention at a morning religious service provided to teams on weekends. Adam LaRoche, then a first baseman for the Washington Nationals, was already heavily invested in the cause and was working with IJM, an anti-trafficking organization based in Washington. Kershaw thought about the mission of his own foundation.
“Kershaw’s Challenge, the heartbeat’s always been kids,” Kershaw said. “I’ve always wanted to be able to help kids. And who’s more vulnerable than a kid that’s involved in this type of exploitation?”
Two years ago, Kershaw reached out to IJM’s office in Dallas, where he lives in the winter. IJM became an official beneficiary of Kershaw’s Challenge last year and Kershaw dropped by the organization’s headquarters when the Dodgers visited the Nationals.
“Here’s this young man who’s been given so much power and is so gifted and that he would come in and so humbly, without any edge or any arrogance, to talk to us, just like an ordinary, normal person ... I was sort of blown away,” IJM President Sean Litton said.
Kershaw and his wife, Ellen, wanted to further familiarize themselves with the group’s work. Kershaw was especially interested in visiting IJM’s office in the Dominican Republic because he had played alongside countless players from the country. Similar motivations prompted him to participate in Major League Baseball’s goodwill trip to Cuba in 2015.
So Kershaw and Ellen traveled to the Dominican Republic in late January as part of a group that included Litton, LaRoche and LaRoche’s wife, Jennifer.
Child sex trafficking, which the IJM website describes as “a form of modern slavery in which someone coerces or deceives another person into commercial sex exploitation for profit,” remains a significant problem in the country. The Dominican Republic passed its first anti-trafficking law in 2003 and enacted its first nationwide plan to combat child sex trafficking three years later, but the efforts resulted in only six convictions, according to IJM. In the five years since IJM opened its offices in the country and started working with the government, there have been 46 convictions, said Andrea Rodriguez, the communications manager of the organization’s Latin American operations.
Kershaw witnessed the problem up close when he accompanied IJM investigators to Santo Domingo’s red-light district.
“We sat with the investigators and we acted like we were tourists there,” Kershaw said. “The girls sat at a different table, but we got to see firsthand what these girls are going through, try to talk with them and just gathering intel as they called it.”
Kershaw described the experience as “uncomfortable,” adding, “It’s just sad to see these girls in that situation. It’s just a different world than I’ve ever known.”
On his last day in the country, Kershaw visited Lily House, a rehabilitation facility where survivors of the illegal trade receive intense therapy and vocational training. “You get to hear their stories and it’s super emotional,” Kershaw said.
His accomplishments on the baseball field gave him access to some of the most powerful political figures in the country.
“These athletes coming in raises the profile of this issue,” Litton said. “Obviously, the victims and their families can’t do it. They’re from the most poor, most vulnerable, weakest people in the country.”