I Grew Up Watching The Best Era of baseball

Clayton Kershaw Celebrates during his 200th-win game. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

I was born in 2001–baseball was a huge part of my life since I was a toddler. My dad grew up a huge baseball fan in Los Angeles, and of course, he is a Dodger fan. I was also born in Los Angeles, and I was about 6 months old when I attended my first Dodgers game. At two years old, I knew all the baseball teams by their logos because, instead of reading to me, my dad would show me his baseball cards and help me memorize their logos. At the time, and probably until I was 8 years old, I didn’t appreciate the greatness of modern-day legends, so I was too young to grasp the impact of Barry Bonds and all his home runs, regardless of steroid use. But in my formative years of understanding baseball, and to this day, I’ve been lucky to witness some absolute legends play live–either on TV or in person.

I wasn’t following baseball for any part of Ken Griffey Jr.’s career, unless you count when I was a toddler, when I didn’t understand the impact of certain players. Then I went through phases of various interests from preschool through the end of first grade. I was into Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and more–but that’s beside the point. When I attended the Dodgers-Pirates Opening Day game in 2010, that’s when my interest in baseball began to take focus–and since then, I fell in love with the game more and more.

Since 2010, I’ve been lucky to witness in real time many of the game’s modern-day greats, some of whom are among the best of all time. I am very fortunate to say that. Three players have reached 500 homers since I started following baseball closely: Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, and Miguel Cabrera. Six players have reached 3000 hits: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Ichiro Suzuki, Adrián Beltré, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera. There are 28 members of the 500-home run club, and there are only 33 members in the 3000-hit club.

You can start with Albert Pujols, whose entire career has happened since I was born, except for his rookie year (I was born in late November). Pujols is one of two players all-time with 700 home runs and 3,000 hits. The only other is Hank Aaron, who my dad got to witness play at the tail end of his career. Pujols is, without a doubt, one of the all-time greats, and for me, is a top 10 position player of all time across all eras of baseball history.

For pitchers, some of the modern-day greats can also be considered all-time greats. Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander are the three pitchers who defined the game of baseball for the past two decades. Each of them has multiple World Series rings, each has three Cy Young Awards, and all of them have eight or more All-Star game selections.

As a Dodgers fan, I have been fortunate, in particular, to watch Kershaw play his whole career in the uniform of my favorite team–while also winning the MVP award in 2014, in addition to the aforementioned career highlights.

This era of baseball has seen Mike Trout, who could end up being one of the greatest what-ifs in modern baseball. He won three MVP awards before injuries plagued his career year after year. It is a shame that, to date, he has only played in one postseason, when the Kansas City Royals swept his Angels in the American League Division Series. The Royals went on to win the American League pennant that year.

We have witnessed pure hitters who can hit for a high average and hit for power, such as Freddie Freeman. Hitters with pure power like Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge. Generational talents like Juan Soto. A 2nd generation MLB great, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, whose father is a Hall of Famer. But there is one player I’m leaving out: Shohei Ohtani.

A modern-day Babe Ruth. A guy who came over from Japan. He is called a “unicorn” for a reason. This man can do it all. He is a great pitcher and can hit bombs. He is a fierce competitor and a force to reckon with. The first member of the 50/50 club for a season, hitting 50+ home runs, and stealing 50+ bases in 2024–a season where he was a full-time Designated Hitter, as he was unable to pitch due to injury. When he came back to pitching in 2025, he did not steal many bases, as that could risk injuries that might keep him from pitching. Oh, did I mention, he won back-to-back MVP awards in 2024 and 2025–and helped the Dodgers win back-to-back World Series in his first two seasons with the Dodgers after coming from the Angels, on his very lucrative 10-year, $700 million deal, with $680 million in deferrals. On the Angels, he had never made a postseason in six seasons, even with Mike Trout, two of the greatest players in the game at the time. Ohtani also won two MVP awards with the Los Angeles Angels. He has played in eight MLB seasons and won the MVP award in half of them. Two in the American League and two in the National League–and counting!

I am fortunate to have watched some of the greatest players of the modern day, who future generations will only hear about as so-called mythical players, like how people around my age would view Babe Ruth, or earlier players like Ty Cobb.

While strikeout numbers have risen for hitters as in today’s game, it’s all about home runs and power; all sports evolve, and that is a fact of life. We have seen some of the most electric players in the game’s history because the long ball is so prevalent.