Clayton Kershaw deserves a parade. This also applies to Los Angeles.

Let’s do this, okay?

Four years ago, the Dodgers won the World Series, but a pandemic canceled the parade.

These Dodgers are four wins from a parade, four wins from a civic celebration that would toast the greatest pitcher of our generation and a golden age in the history of a storied franchise, four wins that would unleash a chorus of raw joy from players and players . fans deprived of a real celebration, four victories of more than a million people who came together for satisfaction were postponed for far too long.

“The fans certainly deserve it,” Dodgers owner Mark Walter said Sunday after the team won the National League pennant.

Getting in the way of a parade: the American League champions, the New York Yankees.

“We didn’t come here to win the pennant,” Walter said. “We came here to win the World Series.”

On the night the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series — as the home team, but playing in a coronavirus bubble in Texas — then-Mayor Eric Garcetti told me he planned to throw a party — if not a parade, then a kind of socially distanced event. party. The Lakers had won the NBA championship in the NBA bubble 16 days earlier, and perhaps a collective celebration was in order.

“I think we were all waiting for the timing, for when it would be feasible,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They even talked about doing something with the Lakers, doing it together. It would have been great. But it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Kershaw said he never really anticipated that celebration, given public health restrictions in the county and state.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates on the field after the team’s victory over the New York Mets in Game 6 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

“I don’t think we ever thought we were going to do that, especially in California,” Kershaw said. “It certainly wouldn’t happen here.”

Infielder Max Muncy said, “It was very disappointing that we didn’t get that parade, but obviously there were bigger circumstances in the world.”

Kershaw is now on the injured list, but eight of the players on this year’s NLCS roster were on the 2020 World Series roster: Muncy; outfielder Mookie Betts; infielder/outfielders Kiké Hernández and Chris Taylor; catchers Austin Barnes and Will Smith; and pitchers Walker Buehler and Blake Treinen.

The Dodgers won the 2020 championship in a 60-game season that involved advancing through four postseason rounds. A 2024 parade would be the first in Los Angeles in 36 years.

“There’s something in it for all of us who have been here,” Roberts said. “We know we won a championship, and that was deserved.

“But we do want that parade. That is an extra incentive for us.”

Kershaw said he didn’t believe a parade would be extra special for the players on the 2020 team.

“I think it would be special either way,” he said. “It would be pretty cool to have a parade here.”

Buehler said, “It would be crazy. We haven’t had one in a long time. Obviously, us and the Lakers couldn’t do it in ’20. It would be great.”

Even as they showered each other with champagne and beer Sunday night, the Dodger players were happy to visualize a parade but were careful not to count on it. They look no further than the Yankees.

“We have four more games to win before there’s a parade,” Betts said. “That will be a difficult task with the Yankees.

“This game is difficult. It’s hard to get to the World Series. We just have to appreciate being here now and playing good baseball, and then we can be lucky enough to have a parade.

That didn’t stop Roberts from firing up the crowd on Sunday night. Just before he held up the NL championship trophy, he shouted a question that didn’t require an answer.

“You want a parade in Los Angeles?” Roberts shouted. “Four more wins!”