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!

the almost daily dodger - miguel vargas

back in 1985, i remember my lcs charging more than common prices for german rivera's topps rookie card. it was solely because rivera was a dodger rookie, and the dodgers had been pretty good at churning out young players over the previous few seasons.

i sort of feel that way about miguel vargas. there seemed to be a lot of hype around his cards last year (here's his 2023 topps stadium club card that has sat in my scanned folder for a few months)

he had a cup of coffee with the dodgers in 2022, but didn't do a lot. still, he was a dodger rookie in 2023 and i found some of his cards harder to come by. maybe i am off base and there wasn't a premium on his cards last year, or maybe it was all cards with the "rc" logo.

at any rate, vargas is now with the white sox after being included in the trade for michael kopech. i really like the trade as the dodger bullpen hasn't been very good and neither has vargas. he's still only 24, but through his first few games with the chisox he's well below replacement player levels, and had only 3 hits in his first 36 at bats for his new team. kopech, meanwhile, has struck out ten of the first 21 batters he’s faced as a dodger and could be the arm that the bullpen was missing, and i do believe the dodgers intend to keep him in a reliever role.

i do hope vargas does well and perhaps, like michael busch, the dodgers did him a favor by trading him somewhere where he can play consistently. only time will tell.

right back where i started from

i took a detour while returning from texas in may and headed west to my hometown. while i was there, i stopped into the local card shop which is located on the same street but a couple miles south of the card and comic shop i frequented as a kid.

i'd been to this shop once before, and i went straight to their dollar boxes. one of the first things i found was a complete 1992 front row roy campanella all-time greats set

this was contained in a single sleeve, so it was a buck. same for this 1993 spectrum diamond club boston red sox set

yaz, doerr, dewey, freddie lynn, and luis tiant for a buck. this 1992 front row all-time greats set featuring buck leonard

was also a buck, and was still factory sealed.

as for singles, this purple parallel of vladimir guerrero's 2023 topps stadium club card

numbered to 75

was the card that convinced me to go through each of the boxes they had on the counter. i went on to find a few more decent cards, including a red parallel of aaron judge's virtuosos of velocity insert

from the same set, and this 2019 topps heritage high numbers juan soto candy lid insert

it's always nice to find a photo variation short print in the dollar box, even if it is from the 2021 topps set

and black border topps heritage parallels are great, too

even when they are a's.

i certainly didn't expect to find an elly de la cruz card in the dollar box, but there it was

it's a 2023 panini prizm insert, so not considered a true rookie card but still a good deal for a buck. and i will always pick up a numbered willie mays parallel for that price

especially when it's a (dodger) blue prizm parallel.

being in dodger country, i didn't expect to find many dodger cards in these boxes, but i did find a few. i was happy to find this 2023 panini prizm jim gilliam purple prizm parallel

which is also serial numbered, and a red foil parallel of will smith's 2023 topps stadium club card

i thought that maybe this 2022 topps gold label clayton kershaw card

was a parallel, but it's just the base class 2 design.

this 2010 donruss elite extra edition shawn tolleson status red die-cut signatures auto /50

is considered a dodger card because it says "los angeles" on the back. it's one of five autos i took from the boxes, and here's one of the others - a 1996 leaf signature series auto of two time dodger mike maddux

after i was through those boxes - i had pulled 45 cards - the owner of the shop brought out a consignment dollar box from which i took another five cards. one was this 2023 panini donruss pink fireworks jackson holliday insert parallel

holliday was back in the minors by this time, but i was still pretty surprised to see this for a dollar.

as i walked to the checkout, i felt the need to open a pack of something and 2024 bowman was really the only new release available at the time. i should have passed on the pack. the only card that was of any interest (and mild at that) was this justin crawford chrome prospects mini diamonds parallel

i was hoping for a paul skenes or even better, the pete rose short print, but came up empty. the shop owner gave me a bit of a discount, so i wound up getting the pack for almost free.

on my way out of town the next day, i stopped for gas and picked up a 2024 dodgers pocket schedule

i find it interesting that they went with neon this year. i guess it is the trendiest noble gas in 2024. it's always good to be on the west coast and i can't wait to get back there again!

disconnected

i am curious to see the changes (or is it a complete overhaul) that the dodgers are making to their city connect uniforms. they've already made tweaks over the years since they first debuted in 2021. max scherzer's 2022 topps card (this is the gold parallel)

shows the original uniform with the full blue outfit and the "los dodgers" script on the hat. 

at some point in 2022, the dodgers ditched the "los dodgers" hat and just wore their standard interlocking la hats as seen on freddie freeman's 2023 topps stadium club (red foil version)

they kept the full blue unis, which i actually didn't mind.

last year, as jason heyward's 2023 topps card (gold parallel) shows

the dodgers ditched the blue pants and went with white pants, but with piping along the sides to differentiate from their normal home whites.

obviously i have no idea what is in store this year with the city connect uniforms, but i hope they are not anything like the padres'.

buehler?

walker buehler is back on the bump for the dodgers tonight (assuming the game is played starting about 2.5 hours from when this post goes live). if the dodgers don't have a ben stein video on diamondvision before the game, what are they even doing?

here are some cards to mark the end of walker buehler's days off:

2020 topps chrome blue parallel

2021 bowman platinum ice foil parallel

2021 topps 1986 all-star relic

2021 topps chrome pink refractor parallel

2022 topps stars of mlb insert

2022 topps gypsy queen blue parallel

and here's his 2014 topps big league base card

that last card came from cards on cards, along with several more dodgers that hit my want lists on the nose.

this is a 2018 bowman alex verdugo chrome rookie of the year favorites insert

mojo box edition! verdugo did not rate in the roy voting in 2018 as he saw only limited playing time. in fact, he was still a rookie in 2019 when he hit .294 for the dodgers in just over 100 games, but didn't place in the roy voting that year either.

2021 topps uk edition luke raley

raley is playing in seattle now after two seasons in tampa following his 2021 season spent with the dodgers.

2023 topps stadium club mookie betts

and will smith

with these two cards in hand, my 2023 stadium club team set is missing only miguel vargas and jd martinez. 

2024 topps big league shohei ohtani

this might be the first ohtani dodger card i've received in trade. pretty sure it is, in fact, yes, it is.

2024 topps big league emmet sheehan

and emmet sheehan electric orange parallel

the borders of big league make the parallels look dirty and less electric, but i am happy to have an example of the orange parallels.

thanks kerry!

with buehler back in action, all eyes turn to the progression of clayton kershaw, whose 2024 topps big league card i recently picked up

it sounds like he threw off a mound the other day, and hopefully will be back in time to make a run at his 3,000th strikeout. the "k is for kershaw kountdown" will return!

big little guys

i recently completed another trade with oren, a collector who is familiar to many of you out there in the blogosphere. he sent some great stuff my way, including some 2023 topps allen & ginter clayton kershaw cards of big and little sizes.

those are a boxtopper and a mini parallel, and the mini is an a&g back to boot!

i am always happy to be adding kershaw cards to the collection, but my favorite card of the trade is this one

that's raul mondesi's 1996 leaf signature series silver autograph card. it is the first mondesi auto i have from that set, and while it is not his "base" bronze auto (that is the only one i still need to complete the dodger team bronze set), it is a really great addition to my collection. here's the back:

which notes that he hit two homers on opening day in 1995. while true, my favorite two-homer opening day for rauuuuuuuuul was on april 5, 1999 when he hit a two-out three-run home run in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game, and then hit a walk-off two out two-run homer to win it in the 11th.

oren also sent some parallels, including a 2022 topps stadium club chrome cody bellinger xfractor

and red foil parallels of noah syndergaard

and mookie betts

from 2023 topps stadium club.

one more parallel to rule them all - a 2023 topps series 2 1988 all-star relic mookie betts black parallel

another great trade in the books. thanks oren!