WORKING ON HIS CHANGE (via The Mother Judd):

In Africa, Lessons on Passion and Perspective for Kershaw (KAREN CROUSE, 2/27/11, NY Times)

The Los Angeles left-hander Clayton Kershaw held the audience in his sway from the first pitch. A world removed from the grandeur of Dodger Stadium, the barefoot children stood in awe as they watched Kershaw’s curveball spin and dip.

Kershaw’s trip to Africa last month was well outside his strike zone, which is why he is eager to go back.

“It changes you,” he said after a recent workout at the Dodgers’ Arizona complex, “and that’s good.” [...]

His dedication to baseball is matched by the commitment his wife, Ellen, has made to helping children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. She embraced the cause after her first visit to Zambia as a college student.

“I’ve gotten to live out his passion with him,” Ellen Kershaw said in a telephone interview. “He knew how important it was to go to Zambia with me. Clayton had heard me talk about it so much that it was to the point he kind of couldn’t go any longer without seeing what lights a fire under me.”

She and Kershaw, childhood sweethearts in Dallas, married in December. Within days, they were on a plane bound for Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, on a mission with Arise Africa.