the k is for kershaw kountdown continues!

for the first time in 2024, we have an update on clayton kershaw's career strikeout total.

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continued as he took the mound against the giants on thursday in los angeles. he struck out 6 batters to give him 6 strikeouts for the 2024 season. those 6 giants that he k'd increased his career total to 2,950.

in honor of his performance, here are 6 not seen on this blog before cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,945 through 2,950.

2,945 - 2011 topps gypsy queen framed green parallel

2,946 - 2013 topps triple threads emerald parallel

2,947 - 2014 topps turkey red

2,948 - 2019 topps chrome xfractor parallel

2,949 - 2020 topps stadium club chrome beam team

2,950 - 2022 topps finest refractor parallel

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who hasn't formally retired but hasn't joined a team so far in 2024, has a career strikeout total of 2,979. kershaw is now 29 k's behind greinke and 50 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw pitched just four innings in his season debut and recorded his first strikeout in the top of the first inning. he ran into trouble in the top of the third, allowing two runs on four consecutive hits to begin the frame, but then struck out the next three batters to end the giants' threat. for good measure, kershaw k'd the leadoff batter in the fourth for four consecutive strikeouts.

so now we wait and see how he recovers from the first start. if all is well, he should be back on the bump to either close the series in san diego or begin the series in oakland. regardless, when kershaw makes his next regular season appearance, know that i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

the almost daily dodger - joc pederson

today i am featuring free agent joc pederson, who began his career with the dodgers back in 2015. here's his 2020 topps stadium club chrome card, in refractor parallel goodness:

i like the photo that topps chose for the card. you have nationals' catcher yan gomes leaning his head in the direction of foul territory with joc leaning towards fair territory as they watch the flight of his 8th inning solo shot in game 1 of the 2019 nlds. throw in the home plate umpire who is also studying the trajectory of the mammoth shot, and it's a pretty balanced card.

the ball wound up hitting high off of the right field foul pole and gave the dodgers a 5-0 lead in the game, and they held on to win by that score. they then lost games four and five to allow the nationals advance to the nlcs. i am still upset with dave roberts for sending clayton kershaw back out to the mound for the 8th inning in game 5, but that was mostly forgotten after the 2020 postseason. mostly.

color color everywhere

i know it is a subject that many are split on - the colorization by topps of old photographs for use on their cards. some prefer the images to be left in black and white, which still allows for them to be used in many sets and inserts. others like the idea, but feel the quality of colorization is not quite adequate. there are other opinions as well. for me, i like that it brings new images of former players on to cardboard rather than recycling the same few images that were previously available in color format.

jackie robinson is one of those legendary players that shows up in many (most?) sets, but his cards suffered due to repetitious use of the same few images. so, i was happy to see a new (colorized) image used on a 2020 topps stadium club chrome card:

the card doesn't scan too well, but it looks nice in person. 

at first, i thought this was a card of jackie signing autographs at dodger stadium because of the colors of the railing and seating levels. that would mean that this photo was taken at an oldtimers game. as you can probably guess, i did some digging.

i knew that this image came no earlier than 1961, thanks to the kid wearing a twins hat. i also knew that jackie famously did not suit up for the 1972 oldtimers game at dodger stadium, which took place the same day that his jersey number was retired along with those of roy campanella and sandy koufax, and i wasn't aware of an earlier oldtimers game hosted by the dodgers.

a quick search led me to the photo at gettyimages

which listed its creation date as august 24, 1969 and its locale as anaheim stadium. i was also able to find an image of the program that someone is holding out for jackie

which matches that same date on which an oldtimers game at anaheim stadium was held. the program features sandy koufax and steve bilko, and this particular copy is signed by don newcombe, but not jackie robinson.

interestingly enough, the game featured don drysdale, who had announced his retirement just a couple of weeks earlier. here's an article by dodger historian mark langill that gives some more detail on drysdale's experience in the month of august, 1969. and here's an article from the los angeles times about the game itself, including some insight on jackie's experience. looks like if i were on twitter i would have saved myself some research time.

anyway, it's good to know that my instincts were correct - that's not dodger stadium. even though i didn't make it to the big a until 1979, i am pretty sure the color of the railing was always reddish-orange as it was then, and the concrete base was a darker color. here's an image of carl yastrzemski from the late 1960's/early 1970's at anaheim stadium that seems to support that recollection.

so you can see that the folks at topps who did the colorizing might have had dodger stadium on the mind instead, which isn't a bad thing except when colorizing black and white photos. i hope things improve in the coming years, because it is great to see a variety of images for the legendary players featured in modern day sets.