ST. PETERSBURG – Shane McClanahan looked into his locker in the Rays’ clubhouse last week, pointing to a special piece of apparel he planned to pack for the trip to his first career All-Star Game. It was a Dodgers jersey, and above the No. 22 on the back was the last name of McClanahan’s favorite pitcher: Clayton Kershaw.
“That’s somebody I’ve really watched and idolized and loved the way he’s gone about his business,” McClanahan said. Naturally, he was eager to pick Kershaw’s brain at Dodger Stadium but still characteristically reserved when talking about it: “Obviously, I don’t want to fanboy too hard.”
One part of Kershaw’s story that’s stuck with McClanahan, though, and still inspires the Rays’ young ace: After winning his second National League Cy Young Award in 2013, Kershaw unveiled a new slider the next year and won both the Cy Young and NL MVP Awards.
“It just shows you’re never too good to get better,” McClanahan said.
That attitude is the key to McClanahan’s rapid, four-year evolution from a high Draft pick with admitted “high reliever risk” to the most dominant starting pitcher in baseball throughout the first half of the season and the American League’s starting pitcher in the Midsummer Classic, who will line up against the future Hall of Famer he’s long admired.
“I’m honored,” said McClanahan, who had received more votes in the All-Star player balloting than any other AL starting pitcher. “There are so many deserving guys in the AL who have had a heck of a year so far. To even be in consideration for this was truly just an honor for me.
“I’d be lying to you if I told you I had never envisioned myself being on that mound competing against the best players in the world. For it to come true is truly an exciting opportunity for me.”
Nobody doubted the hard-throwing left-hander’s natural ability. But what’s set McClanahan apart has been his relentless drive to get better, his awareness to identify potential areas of improvement and his aptitude for quickly putting those changes into practice.
“Once you get complacent, that’s when people start passing you by and you start having failure. This game is very hard. It’s hard to get here. It’s even harder to stay,” McClanahan said. “I think it’s ultimately up to the player to kind of push themselves to try and continually get better and improve and become a master of the craft.
“You’ve just got to have that pursuit of being as good…
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