the k is for kershaw kountdown continues

clayton kershaw was on the mound for the dodgers last night in los angeles against the tampa bay rays, and so the k is for kershaw kountdown is back.

kershaw pitched five innings and struck out 5 batters to give him 24 strikeouts for the 2024 season. those 5 rays that he k'd increased his career total to 2,968.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 not seen on this blog before cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,964 through 2,968.

2,964 - 2017 topps walmart exclusive electricity

2,965 - 2019 panini donruss holo blue parallel

2,966 - 2020 panini donruss optic

2,967 - 2021 panini donruss red/white parallel #/2021

2,968 - 2022 topps cosmic chrome refractor

kershaw allowed five straight batters to reach base in the first inning, allowing four runs in the process. however, he regained control and held the rays to just one run in the four innings following. kershaw struck out two batters in both the third and fouth innings, and was in line for the win until the dodger bullpen surrendered the lead in the late innings.

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 11 k's behind greinke and 32 away from the 3,000 milestone. kershaw could have as many as six starts remaining in the regular season, but he will need to average just over five k's per inning to get to 3,000 this year.

kershaw should be back on the mound this weekend against the diamondbacks which should be interesting given how disastrous his last outing against them was. know that when kershaw makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - house of the mouse edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he pitched against the angels on tuesday night in anaheim, not too far from disneyland. he struck out 5 batters to give him 103 strikeouts on the season. those 5 halos that he k'd increased his career total to 2,910.

in honor of his performance, here are 5 cards to represent strikeouts 2,906 through 2,910.

2,906 - 2018 bowman sky blue

2,907 - 2019 topps big league gold

2,908 - 2020 topps utz

2,909 - 2021 topps finest flashbacks

2,910 - 2022 topps cosmic chrome

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and will remain there until he passes zack greinke, who struck out 4 on sunday against these same angels to increase his strikeout total to 2,940. kershaw is now 30 k's behind greinke (although greinke is slated to pitch today) and 90 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

with the game taking place in anaheim - a city that i spent a lot of time in back in the 1990's - i figured this was a good time to show off an oddball card that i added to my dodger collection a few months back:

that's a dodger card - even though it says "mickey mouse all-stars" - from the 2010 all-star game that was held in anaheim. it was a fanfest giveaway that came in packs of five cards. i believe there were ten cards in all - three non-franchise cards (national league, american league, and all-star game) and seven franchise cards (dodgers, angels, braves, cubs, mets, yankees, giants). here is the back of the dodger card:

there's a bit of weirdness on the back as i don't know anyone who refers to 1932 as the first season for the dodger franchise. otherwise, the card presents a nice snapshot in time in terms of franchise leaders. today, kershaw would replace chad billingsley in each of the active leader pitching categories, plus sandy koufax as the all-time whip leader and don sutton in all-time strikeouts with 2,910 and counting. see? this card ties in to the k is for kershaw kountdown quite well!

it would seem that kershaw's next start will come against the rockies next tuesday in colorado. regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

when the card comes second

sometimes i will give more weight to a random card at a shop or show that i am on the fence about purchasing if it is in a semi-rigid holder. in fact, there are many bloggers and friends of blogs who have cards in your collections partly because i saw a cheap vintage card of your team or player in a semi-rigid holder at a show or shop. i prefer semi-rigid holders to toploaders because they are easier to ship cards in using envelopes. back when i was doing a lot of ttm, i was always on the lookout for semi-rigid holders, and if i were vacillating about buying a card from the vintage bargain bin or not, a free semi-rigid holder would usually tip the scales in favor of the sale. heck, i even bought a binder of cards at a card show for cheap because the cards were in ultra pro platinum sheets. the cost of the thing was less than the sheets alone were worth! this opening paragraph will hopefully make sense later on...

i made an unplanned stop at one of the local card shops for a few minutes in mid-january and had just enough time to pull $42 worth of singles, for which i was charged $35. this included just over 40 nickel cards - most of which were cards from 2022 topps cosmic chrome. there was only one dodger in the bunch, however - this walker buehler

the other nickel dodger to be found was a 2022 topps holiday freddie freeman

card, who was joined by a holiday double play turn courtesy of jonathan india

i found a couple of 2022 stadium club parallels in the one nickel box i dug partway through, but was most pleased to find a regular old buster posey 

for the final tribute collection.

the majority of the other cards purchased were hall of famer singles priced at a quarter each and some dodger and braves insert and parallel singles that were also 4 for a buck. there were some highlights there, including a hank aaron insert 

numbered to 50 

and a fergie jenkins gypsy queen mini from 2013 numbered to 99

there were a good variety of dodger inserts that i brought home, but i didn't scan them all. i did scan this 2020 panini prizm numb3r5 game insert of cody bellinger

so that will have to do. i also added a fifty cent joc pederson blue chrome refractor from 2021 to my stack. big spender. those 63 cards came to a total of $16.

the rest of the cards i purchased came from the 50% off auto/relic bin. one was a dodger prospect auto, and i found a couple of 2022 dodger relics, plus a couple of triple threads relics for some trading partners. the last card i added to the stack was this one:

i did not know who jahmai jones was, and i didn't (still don't) know of anyone who is looking for a 2021 topps gold label gold framed autograph of him, but the fact that the card was in a thick one-touch convinced me to pull the trigger. it turns out that jones is in the dodger organization now, rehabbing from tommy john surgery and expected back possibly late in the 2023 season.

i didn't use one-touch cases until i started my hall of famer collection, really. now i have all of those cards in one-touches along with a few of my steve garvey cards. i know i can use this case for one of the thicker garvey cards i've acquired recently, and so the autograph card was just a bonus.

i was pretty pleased with what i walked out of the store with given the limited time i had. no cards in semi-rigid holders this time, but there's always next time. hopefully.