the k is for kershaw kountdown concludes - baseball immortality unlocked edition!

clayton kershaw made his ninth appearance of the 2025 season wednesday night against the white sox at dodger stadium, just three strikeouts shy of the 3,000 mark. i am pleased to be able to post the final edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as he recorded his 3,000th strikeout on his 100th (and last) pitch of the night in front of a hometown crowd filled with dodger faithful!

in honor of his performance and achievement, here are three cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,998 through 3,000.

2,998 - 2021 topps museum collection single player primary pieces quad relics copper parallel #/75

this is actually the newest kershaw card in my collection, as i picked it up at one of the local card shops on monday. i had noticed it when i stopped in a couple of days prior but didn't pull the trigger. but, since the shop is close to my work, i made a pit stop to grab it because of the red patch and the comparatively low price.

2,999 - 2022 panini chronicles spectra colorgraphs auto

i bought this card at that same lcs during my weekend stop. it is the least amount of money i have paid for any kershaw autograph, and that is because the design and execution of the card is terrible. the paint pen that kershaw was given to use is too dark against the faux brick background and so the signature is difficult to see. still, it's an on card auto and the price was more than right.

3,000 - 2025 topps k-zone insert

as soon as i saw these inserts in 2025 topps series 2, i knew that this would be the card to represent strikeout number 3,000. there is a backwards k version which would have been more appropriate, but is currently cost prohibitive. still, if you scan the back of this card

the k is backwards. 

i had figured that strikeout number 3,000 would come against old friend miguel vargas the second time through the lineup. instead, kershaw struck out vargas the second time around for his first k of the night, then got lenyn sosa swinging to end the fifth and vinny capra looking to become the 20th pitcher (and fourth lefty) to reach 3,000 regular season strikeouts in a career.

the broadcast made a big deal about kershaw being the "third" pitcher to do it with one team (walter johnson and bob gibson - the first two to reach 3,000) are the others they were referencing. however, john smoltz recorded the first 3,011 strikeouts of his career with the braves before splitting his final season with the red sox and cardinals (and no, i don't consider smoltz's minor league time in the tigers' organization to have any bearing on his major league career in this regard). if kershaw does, in fact, remain a "dodger for life", then he will join johnson and gibson as the only members of the 3,000 strikeout club to have only pitched for one franchise in their career, but let's not cheat braves fans of their 3,000 strikeout guy.

as for the game itself, the first thing i noticed was how full the stadium was for the first pitch. it was packed which is rarely the case at the start of a game at dodger stadium. everyone knew what was likely going to happen, and they knew that it could happen as quickly as the first inning, even though it wound up taking six.  kershaw allowed four runs in those six innings of work, but he didn't figure in the decision as the dodgers mounted a 9th inning comeback to walk off the white sox 5-4. he walked one, and allowed nine hits - one of which was a two-run homer by austin slater. his next start should come on the road in milwaukee, and if he hadn't reached 3,000 on wednesday, i would have definitely made the trip into wisconsin to be there in person.

as it is, i am happy to have been able to see him pitch in person a couple of times, including one of the best performances of his career. what a time it has been to be a dodger fan, even though neither the franchise nor the personnel structure of the game are the same as it was when i first started following the club.

here are some more kershaw cards because it's his achievement that this post in the kountdown is all about, and these particular cards seemed appropriate.

2015 topps tribute relic

2015 topps stadium club gold foil parallel

2022 topps stadium club chrome

2023 topps heritage high numbers now & then

2023 topps stadium club red foil parallel

2023 topps stadium club sepia parallel

certainly worth a tip of the cap!

kershaw is still in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 84 k's behind smoltz, with exactly 3,000 for his career.

what an achievement, and what a career. thanks for kounting down with me and congratulations to clayton kershaw!

it's good to know a guy

i had been occasionally checking the local card collector club's website to see when the next church show was going to be held. they are typically held once in the spring and once in the fall. however, there was just a glaring "tbd" on the site for months. running into brian at the monthly club show in august had me thinking about the church show again, and thankfully i got an email from him letting me know that the church show was happening on september 21. better yet, brian and a couple friends were setting up as a vendor.

it turns out that the reason the club website wasn't being updated is that the church show was scheduled for the same day as the monthly club show and they didn't want to publicize the competition. for me, with brian selling, it was a nobrainer to eschew the club show and head to church!

brian had told me that he was going to have two 5000 count monster dime boxes, and when i approached the table, he put the first one down. there in the second row was this card in front

i told brian that having a 1982 donruss steve garvey diamond king in front was a smart move. he said it was all about knowing his customer. of course, i couldn't leave the garv behind.

the first block of cards that i looked at included a bunch of 2024 topps aqua parallels, and i told brian that i was a sucker for those sorts of parallels, too. here's a "color match" fernando tatis jr card

to represent the stack of these that i added to my pile. there were a host of other parallel types that i took, including a 2017 topps fire brooks robinson flame parallel

there were a boatload of straight up inserts, too. here's a 2022 panini prizm vladimir guerrero jr illumination insert

i suspect that the holo version is more "illuminated" than this base insert version.

here are a couple of topps heritage inserts that caught my eye - a nolan ryan card from 2015

and an ernie banks card from 2020

there were some attractive base cards, too. this 1994 upper deck ken griffey jr card

is one of my favorite base cards of all-time so i had to grab one of the two that brian had for sale. and i am not sure that i had seen this 2014 topps stadium club roberto clemente card before

so i took it, too.

i felt that it was worth a dime to acquire this 1974 topps hank aaron card

even though it is in rough shape. as brian noted, "it's 96% intact!"

as for dodgers, there were plenty even though brian has provided me with a steady stream of cards featuring the boys in blue over the years. here's a 2017 topps gypsy queen jackie robinson short print

that i needed, and here's a 2021 topps chrome max muncy all-star game refractor insert

that was also a need. these seem to be less prevalent than the 2022 counterparts, but that may not actually be the case.

back to some cards that i didn't really need but bought nonetheless, here's a 1970 topps dodger team card

and a 1987 topps bill russell card

that i chose to take with me.

one player specific card that was new to me was this 2022 panini donruss vladimir guerrero orange holo

parallel.

i found a lot of cards for my various mini-collections, too.

double play cards like a 2002 donruss originals jeff kent 

and a couple of 2022 panini donruss ryne sandberg cards

the base version is a dupe of one i already had, so it goes into my lurker collection thanks to tony gwynn showing up.

here's another one for the lurker collection - a 2016 topps stadium club manny machado card

featuring cal ripken jr.

brian was wise to have this 2012 topps gypsy queen willie mays glove stories insert in one of the boxes

because i will purchase pretty much any card showing "the catch" for my name/number on the back collection. that's where this 1992 leaf jon olerud card is headed

as is this 1998 donruss collections leaf eric davis card

and this 2019 topps stadium club mookie betts card

i have kind of shied away from adding too many tatooine cards lately, but i did choose this electric blue parallel of jazz chisholm's 2021 topps big league card

as well as this 2021 topps stadium club jose ramirez card

that photo really should have been saved for 2022 topps heritage, as it has 1973 topps written all over it. i see the first base coach's head, the first baseman's arm, the second baseman's leg, and the umpire's arm all disembodied. it's chaos!

at some point while i was digging through the boxes, brian laid out a couple of cards he had set aside for me specifically. this is a 2001 pacific private stock shawn green game gear card

and this is a 1998 topps interleague matchups mystery finest card

that hasn't been peeled. here's the back:

so, does the card front feature mike piazza, eric karros, jim edmonds, or tim salmon? i didn't peel it, but based on the comparison of the impression underneath and images online, i believe this to be jim edmonds' card.

brian also had somehow acquired duplicates of a baseball card breakdown 1975 hostess clayton kershaw custom

so he handed one over to me.

after all was said and done, i had pulled around 460 cards from the two dime boxes. after settling up, brian handed over this 2015 topps stadium club yasiel puig gold foil parallel

it is a beaut of a card.

finally, i had added an unopened pack of 2003 topps opening day to my pile

of course, i opened it when i got home. the mini insert was mike piazza

and the cards were your standard early 2000's variety of guys -todd helton, carlos lee, cliff floyd, and mike sweeney. the floyd card offered a nice view of the ted williams memorial that the red sox wore. i thought it appropriate that the last card in the pack was this one

a sweet minky card from a fellow twin cities card collector. thanks brian!

and, if anyone out there is looking for a pair of john candy's pants, i know a guy who knows a guy.

not all lurkers are in the background

my lurker collection was borne out of a desire to find a place in my collection for cards like the 1975 topps world series cards that covered a's victories but featured ron cey and steve yeager in the photo used. or, the 1976 topps steve ontiveros card that featured mike schmidt - a card that i featured in my very first lurker mini-collection post . those were the first cards i remember seeing that fit the "lurker" bill for me (you could argue that the cey and yeager examples are not lurkers at all), although there are other, better known examples.

one of the best known features a foreground lurker - here's nolan ryan on bud harrelson's 1971 topps card

plus, that's either joe morgan or jimmy wynn sliding in to second base. i know i have shown the harrelson card before, but it's a great example of a foreground lurker.

over the last couple of years, i've gone through a bunch of cards that were sitting in monster boxes and found some specimens to extract and add to this mini-collection of mine.  take a look:

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee alfonso soriano

i went looking for the play shown on the card, and if i recall correctly, it's from a game in 2007. dodger andy laroche is there in the foreground, and that's jeff kent in the background.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee ryan sweeney (derek jeter)

plays at second base - whether they be double play turns or not - and plays at the plate are good for lurkers in front of the card's main subject.  case in point:

2014 topps jose altuve (mike trout)

2012 topps chrome jordany valdespin (giancarlo stanton)

more double plays to follow.

1997 fleer ultra rickey henderson (mike piazza)

yes, that's piazza's arms and leg waiting for rickey

mike piazza also gets the foreground lurker treatment on kerry wood's 2003 topps stadium club card

here's a good one - albert pujols' 2007 upper deck card

features justin verlander in the foreground and ivan rodriguez in the background.

staying with the background, my lurker collection allows me to keep a 1984 fleer glenn hubbard card

thanks to barney rubble and the phillie phanatic. of course, i would have had this card in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection - there's no way my collection would be complete without it.

here's another good example of background lurking - 1990 fleer baseball all-stars robin yount (paul molitor)

sometimes the lurker is as prominent on the card as the subject, like this 1995 upper deck michael jordan card 

featuring harry caray, for example. and this 2001 upper deck joe dimaggio pinstripes exclusives card

featuring dimaggio and mickey mantle.

i guess what i am getting at is that there are a bunch of lurker cards out there that i've formally moved to my mini-collection. i may have shown some of these before, but oh well.  enjoy.

2016 topps update edwin encarnacion (mike trout)

2015 topps update paul goldschmidt (mike trout)

2000 fleer ultra sandy alomar jr (roberto alomar)

2012 topps opening day joe mauer (david ortiz)

2002 upper deck magglio ordonez (derek jeter)

2002 fleer ultra tino martinez (mike piazza)

2002 fleer ultra jeff kent (mike piazza)

i promised more double plays...

1990 upper deck bill doran (tony gwynn)

1992 donruss delino deshields (tom glavine)

1992 upper deck jose oquendo (ryne sandberg)

1993 leaf lance blankenship (robin yount)

1993 topps mickey morandini (andre dawson)

1993 upper deck jeff huson (back - rickey henderson)

1994 topps felix fermin (rickey henderson)

1994 upper deck collector's choice bret boone (rickey henderson)

1999 ud choice damion easley (rickey henderson)

1995 topps jose lind (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck denny hocking (frank thomas)

1998 pinnacle carlos baerga (ryne sandberg)

1998 topps joey cora (roberto alomar)

1998 topps kevin plawecki (larry walker)

1996 upper deck royce clayton (back - henry rodriguez)

2000 upper deck jay bell (dodger player)

2001 topps stadium club jose offerman (derek jeter)

2005 topps all-time fan favorites rod carew (brooks robinson)

2012 topps chrome orange refractor/2012 topps chrome/2012 topps opening day dee gordon (chipper jones)

2003 upper deck jerry hairston jr (dave roberts)

yes, he's hard to see, but that's dave roberts sliding in during his dodger playing days.

how about some catcher cameos?

1997 upper deck fred mcgriff (back - tom prince)

1993 upper deck kirt manwaring (gary carter)

1989 topps padres leaders (gary carter)

1978 topps roy white (carlton fisk)

2011 topps brian duensing (joe mauer)

2012 topps javy guerra (dioner navarro)

time for some coaches/managers!

1993 topps donovan osborne (joe amalfitano)

1975 topps mike marshall '74 highlights (walt alston, bill russell, steve yeager)

1995 score gold rush brian anderson (rod carew)

2008 topps john mclaren (ichiro)

here are even more lurker cards - background and foreground and equal ground!

1981 topps carl yastrzemski (carlton fisk)

1998 fleer si world series fever jim thome (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck collector's choice se juan gonzalez base and silver signature (reggie jackson)

1994 upper deck collector's choice frank thomas up close & personal (rickey henderson)

1994 upper deck harold baines (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck ozzie guillen (eddie murray)

1999 upper deck ray durham (rickey henderson)

1993 upper deck kelly gruber (jack morris - and pat borders)

1993 upper deck fred mcgriff (back - tony gwynn)

1993 upper deck ramon martinez (brett butler)

1999 topps sammy sosa (eric young - and (i think) todd hollandsworth)

2014 topps update chone figgins (clayton kershaw and don mattingly)

2015 topps stadium club carlton fisk (tom seaver)

2015 topps stadium club ernie banks (barack obama)

2007 upper deck masterpieces cal ripken jr (lou gehrig monument plaque)

yes, i know this one is a stretch.

just a couple more...

1994 upper deck all-time heroes johnny podres (roy campanella and don hoak)

and one of my favorite finds from the last couple of years:

1994 upper deck all-time heroes marv throneberry (bob gibson)

such a mets card. one of the best cards to show an error this side of dick green's 1973 topps card, and the fact that bob gibson is on the basepath makes it even better.