Some vigilant baseball fans might have already known this, but a reminder never hurts: Clayton Kershaw’s great uncle discovered Pluto. You can read all about it at Clyde Tombaugh’s Wikipedia page.

In 2006, Pluto was downgraded from a full-blown planet — not to mention the most delicious part of “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” — to a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet. As Kershaw explained to Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night, his family has been reeling ever since.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCmVXS_MLMg#at=130

“I’m really glad you brought this up,” Kershaw said when asked about his astronomer uncle. “It’s something that’s been a huge problem in the Kershaw/Tombaugh family for a couple of years now. My great uncle discovered Pluto. I know that sounds like a joke when it comes out, but it’s true. Clyde Tombaugh, great uncle, discovered Pluto. And they took it away from us. Said it’s a dwarf planet now.

“What scientists just decide to just get in a room one day and say, ‘Oh, you know, we’re out with Pluto’?”

The scientists in question, it so happens, are the members of the International Astronomical Union, the authority on classifying celestial bodies. Ganging up to cut Pluto down is pretty much exactly what they do.

Regardless, pretty impressive that the same family produced an eminent astronomer and one of the best pitchers in the world. Save some skills for he rest of us, Kershaws.