Clayton Kershaw hits Jimmy Kimmel in the face with a baseball (Video)

Mike Oz

Let's put this on the record: Late-night TV talk shows would be much better if MLB pitchers showed up every night to hit hosts in the face with baseballs. It would be a reason, certainly, to put Jay Leno back on the air.

As of right now, only Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," is on board with this. He had Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw on Monday night. Kimmel asked Kershaw to knock an apple off his head with a ball.

That's putting a lot of trust in Kershaw's command, which is plenty great, mind you. That's still just a daunting situation, whether it's Clayton Kershaw or Clayton Bigsby tossing the ball.

Kershaw, looking stiff in a fancy TV suit, didn't bring his best stuff. But he still managed to knock the apple off Kimmel's head — after hitting him in the face (!!) with the baseball.

Let's watch it again in GIF form (and over and over again, if you like):

Oops. The setup made it sound like they were using those soft baseballs the T-ball kids use and Kershaw wasn't throwing that hard, so there's no harm to Kimmel's handsome TV mug because of the beaning.

Both benches, however, were warned.

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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!