the k is for kershaw countdown continues - top 20 edition!

clayton kershaw made his fifth appearance of the 2025 season sunday afternoon against the cardinals at busch stadium number 3. so, i am pleased to be able to post another edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as we track his progress to the 3,000 strikeout milestone.

this start turned out to be a big one, as kershaw not only notched his first win of the season, he registered seven strikeouts to bring his career total to 2,983 and move into 20th place all-time! here's the updated top 24 all-time strikeout leader tile from baseball reference:

no one in baseball history has ever accumulated as many strikeouts as clayton kershaw and not reached the 3,000 milestone!

in honor of his performance, here are seven cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,977 through 2,983.

2,977 - 2022 topps steve aoki's baseball party

2,978 - 2019 topps finest

2,979 - 2018 topps big league wins league leaders gold parallel

2,980 - 2019 topps fire en fuego insert

2,981 - 2020 topps fire smoke and mirrors insert

2,982 - 2021 topps chrome ben baller icy

2,983 - 2021 topps gold label

i made sure to use that big league card for strikeout 2,979 as the card features both kershaw and zack greinke. for a brief moment in time (half of an inning), they were tied with each other at 2,979 career strikeouts, but strikeout 2,980 put kershaw in 20th place by himself.

against the cardinals, kershaw filled the role of stopper as the dodgers won the last game of the series after dropping the first two. he pitched five innings and walked no batters, and at one point k'd three consecutive batters. he did give up six hits and one run, but escaped a fifth inning jam featuring a run in and runners on second and third by striking out brendan donovan to end the inning. 

seven strikeouts over five innings was great to see after kershaw's first four starts resulted in fewer than 1 k/ip. it's worth noting that kershaw is one of only five pitchers among the top 20 in career strikeouts who has averaged more than 1 strikeout per inning pitched. his ratio is fourth among them, and the pitchers (in order from highest k/ip to lowest) are: max scherzer, randy johnson, pedro martinez, kershaw, and nolan ryan.

here's a non-kershaw card - it's a 2025 bowman hyeseong kim card

kim tripled in the top of the second to drive in two runs and deliver a somewhat rare (for the dodgers lately) hit with runners in scoring position. it's a small sample size, but kim is hitting over .400 so far as a major leaguer, and his speed has paid dividends on the bases and in the field - the latter evidenced by his great running catch of a masyn winn drive into the left-center field gap.

kershaw is now in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed - looking at you, chris sale). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 101 k's behind smoltz, but just 17 away from the 3,000 milestone. for what it's worth, he is also now tied with smoltz on the all-time wins leaderboard with 213.

kershaw should be back on the mound later this week against the giants. know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned! 

baseless claims

there was another seller other than brian that i purchased some cards from at the church show in september. it was an older couple who i have seen at these shows in the past, and they typically have some decent stuff in their bargain boxes. this time around, there was a smaller quarter box and then a couple of larger 50 cent and dollar boxes. however, they noted that those were 25% off.

as i was digging through, i noticed that these were all parallels with a few inserts here and there. i selected several parallels from these boxes, including a 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary duke snider refractor

i was actually hoping to find some base cards from this set, because i still need a handful of dodgers to complete the team set. no dice. there was no base to be found anywhere even though one of the box rows was filled with cards from this release.

i do have the full dodger base team set from the 2022 version of platinum anniversary, and i was able to find a refractor to add to the collection in the form of freddie freeman

more shiny stuff was there for me to take, like a 2020 panini select clayton kershaw holo prizm

and a 2019 topps fire corey seager green parallel

i found a new double play card for the collection - a 2020 topps chrome dansby swanson negative refractor

but perhaps the shiniest card i took with me was a 2019 topps heritage aroldis chapman chrome refractor card

what can i say, i am a sucker for shiny numbered cards.

here is a smattering of other parallel finds from these boxes

with the card in the upper right being numbered to 25. 

the oddest item i took from these boxes was this 1998 upper deck powerdeck cd-rom for the vladimir guerrero collection

there were a few more cards from this seller that came home with me, but none were base cards primarily because i didn't see any base cards. i am not complaining as it was fun to dig through all of those parallels but it did have me wondering what happened to all the base that had to have been set aside to get to so many parallels.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - kersh k's white sox

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he pitched against the white sox on wednesday night. he struck out 5 batters to give him 98 strikeouts on the season. those 5 chisox that he k'd increased his career total to 2,905.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 cards to represent strikouts 2,901 through 2,905.

2,901 - 2017 panini chronicles

2,902 - 2019 topps chrome pink refractor

2,903 - 2019 topps fire smoke & mirrors

2,904 - 2021 topps gallery rainbow foil

2,905 - 2022 topps allen & ginter banner season

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and will remain there until he passes zack greinke, who struck out 4 earlier in the week to increase his strikeout total to 2,936. kershaw is now 31 k's behind greinke and 95 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

through 14 starts this season, kershaw's era is 2.95 and his whip is 1.10. i find it incredible that his current whip is higher than he has posted in any season since 2010. his career whip is just over 1.00 which puts him at fifth all-time. while his strikeouts per 9 innings this year (10.7) is up, so are his walks per 9 innings. you would have to go back to 2012 to find a season where kershaw's walk ratio was as high as it currently is in 2023 (2.3). what a great pitcher he is, and has been!

it would seem that kershaw's next start would come against the angels next week, meaning he will miss the series against the giants this weekend. regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

waiting 'til someone knocks out my want list

i am not the most patient person. i have patience for others, but when it comes to collecting, i lack the virtue. even though i know that if i wait, the price will likely come down on some new release, i rarely wait. and, as a player collector, sometimes you have no choice but to strike quickly in case a certain card is not seen again for a long time.

same goes for my list of my most wanted cards - my 'nefarious 9' - over there on the sidebar if you are looking at this post via computer. maybe someday i'll add it to a menu accessible via phone. anyway, there have been times when i've been filling out a sportlots order and i'll add a card from that list. they are my most wanted cards, after all. however, i do try to add some cards to the list that others might have in their inventory to trade.

thankfully, there were a few of those cards still on the list when i received an envelope from p-town tom of waiting 'til next year fame.  he saw fit to send me a 2020 topps archives gavin lux card

which completed my team set. lux is a wisconsin native so maybe there is no reason for an illini like tom to hold on to a card of a very hyped (too hyped?) young player.

other cards knocked off the list include a 2019 topps fire walker buehler

2017 topps bunt kenley jansen

and 1988 fleer mini orel hershiser

all of these cards completed team sets, and in the case of the buehler, resolves one of the worst conundrums of modern collecting - having a parallel of a card, but not the base version.

tom also took the time to send a 1995 score brian anderson

i had added this card to the "non-dodger bonus cards" section of the list, as it features one rodney cline carew - a nice addition to my lurker collection. anderson is a guy i sort of followed, as he was the third pick in the 1993 draft. i paid close attention to that draft because the dodgers were coming off of their worst year ever, and i knew they would have a high pick as a result. unfortunately, even though the 1992 dodgers had the worst record in baseball, it was the american league's turn to get the #1 pick, and so the mariners (who won one more game than the dodgers in 1992) got to pick first. the dodgers settled for second, and angels picked third and took anderson. the dodgers selected darren dreifort with their pick after the mariners took alex rodriguez. what a dumb rule that was. of course, there was hope and reason to believe that rodriguez would fall to the dodgers (as recounted by old friend eric stephens), but it was not meant to be.

by the way, all of the players shown on these cards are world champions (anderson won with the 2001 diamondbacks), except for the lone hall of famer, rod carew.

thanks tom!

i'll try to show more patience with the cards on the list - i already have one card that has been pledged by a fellow blogger, so i've taken that one off the list just in case.

2019 memorial patches

there were some passings of prominent baseball people prior to and during the 2019 season which resulted in memorial patches (and an armband) to be worn by various teams and umpires.  i've been tracking down cards to represent these memorials for my collection (if you are wondering why i do such a thing, here's a post that explains it).

first off, dodger legend don newcombe died on february 10, 2019.  he had been with the organization for a total of 61 years, first as a player and later as an executive. he overcame addiction to become a force within the organization for player relations and community outreach.  i saw him in the dodger stadium lot after a game in the early 1990's, but unfortunately chose not to approach him. i would have liked to have said hello and maybe ask him for a story from his brooklyn days.

in newcombe's honor, the dodgers wore a "newk 36" patch on their right sleeves all season, as seen on this 2019 topps triple threads cody bellinger card:

they moved it to the left sleeve on jackie robinson day, as i showed on a 2019 topps now joc pederson card earlier in the year.

hall of famer frank robinson passed away three days before newcombe's death, and most of the teams that he was affiliated with paid tribute. first, the reds, for whom robinson played from 1956 to 1965 (winning a triple crown along the way), wore a patch with his number 20 displayed on their chests.  this 2019 topps now nick senzel card shows the patch nicely.

i believe the reds wore this patch only on their home whites, which excluded their litany of throwback unis worn during the season.

i don't believe that the giants, for whom robinson managed, wore a patch in his honor, but they did wear a patch in honor of another hall of famer - willie mccovey - who passed away on october 31, 2018.  they also wore a patch for former owner peter mcgowan who died on january 27, 2019.  the mcgowan patch was rectangular and simply said "peter", while mccovey's patch was circular and said "stretch 44".  the patches were worn stacked on the right sleeve, as shown in this 2019 topps total mike yastrzemski card:

during the all-star game, the patches were relocated to the left chest, as shown on this 2019 topps update will smith card:

the orioles also wore patches for frank robinson.  his number 20 adorned their right sleeves during the season as seen on this 2020 topps heritage hanser alberto card:

but was also present on their left chest during some spring training games as evidenced by this 2019 topps fire jonathan villar card:

the patch also showed up on the left chest for the all-star game, and i'll show a card that proves this a little later on.

finally, the indians, for whom robinson became player-manager in 1974 (the first african-american manager to boot), also wore a number 20 patch to honor him.  they wore the patch only on opening day, and so i was excited to find a card showing the patch.  here's mike clevinger's 2020 topps stadium club card:

showing the patch on his right sleeve.

mel stottlemyre was a yankee player, scout, coach, and executive. after he died on january 13, 2019, the yankees announced that they would wear a black armband in his honor.  the black armband has become the standard yankee memorial in recent years, but it remains to be seen if they will go back to the number memorials for any of their more prominent alumni in the future.  anyway, here's a 2019 topps total troy tulowitzki card

that features the armband prominently. i went with tulo because there is no doubt that this card features the 2019 armband that way.

later in the season, the rays wore a patch for their inagural owner vince naimoli, who died on august 25, 2019.  these late season patches are not necessarily guaranteed to show up on cardboard, but tommy pham's heroics on september 2nd netted this 2019 topps now card that just happens to show the patch:

the phillies also added a patch to their right sleeves during the season, as seen on this 2019 topps update bryce harper perennial all-star insert

the "dpm" patch is in honor of david p. montgomery, a former president and minority owner of the club who died on may 8, 2019.

mlb umpires also mourned the passing of one of their own.  jim mckean, a 30-year veteran, died on january 24, 2019.  as a result, all umpires wore a square "jm" patch on their left sleeves all season. they later added an "ec" patch during the world series for eric cooper who passed away on october 20, 2019, as you can see on this 2020 topps stadium club michael brantley card:

you can see the "jm" patch on aaron judge's 2020 topps heritage card:

and (barely) on this 2019 topps update charlie blackmon card:

it's there on the left sleeve below the all-star game patch. more noticeable, however, is the "45" patch on the right chest of umpire mark wegner.  that patch was worn in honor of angel pitcher tyler skaggs who died on july 1, 2019 as a result of an accidental overdose.

pretty much everyone at the all-star game honored skaggs.  while it's not a true memorial, mike trout wore skaggs' number 45 during the game as seen on his 2019 topps update card:

most teams added the patch to their right chests.  take a look:

atlanta braves:

colorado rockies:

miami marlins:

milwaukee brewers:

new york mets:

philadelphia phillies:

pittsburgh pirates:

baltimore orioles:

(there's the orioles' robinson patch moved to the left chest)

boston red sox:

chicago white sox:

cleveland indians:

francisco lindor chose to add the patch to his hat.

houston astros:

minnesota twins:

new york yankees:

i'll keep an eye out for other examples, as well as for cards featuring the same patch that was worn by all teams during "players' weekend" with those all-black and all-white uniforms, like this 2020 topps buster posey photo variation card.

finally, the angels added a different patch to their uniforms for skaggs.  you can see it on this 2019 bowman's best griffin canning card

the "skaggs 45" patch is similar to others that the angels have worn in recent years, and it replaced the black "45" patch that they wore on july 2nd, the day after skaggs' passing

on july 12, the team all wore skaggs' jersey with no patch, and the game resulted in a combined no-hitter.  2020 topps big league celebrated that feat with a highlights card

that i've added to my memorials collection.  you will notice that catcher dustin garneau has the patch on his chest protector, but the other players are wearing skaggs jerseys.

 baseball reference recorded approximately 100 former players and managers who passed away in 2019, and (as i type this in early march of 2020) 16 so far in 2020. i know the royals will be wearing a patch for former owner david glass, but it remains to be seen if don larsen or ron fairly or tony fernandez or some other player, manager, announcer, or executive will receive a memorial in 2020.