ya basic

a few months ago i bought a don sutton card from the 1975 mengler set

which left me with just bill buckner's to track down (plus a second steve garvey, i suppose) to complete my dodger team set. or so i thought.

for those of you who are unfamiliar, i showed some others from this set in an older post and more recently found a photo of a checklist and ad for the set that gives a better explanation

i found this helpful, if not a bit frustrating, as neither andy messersmith and jim wynn are listed as dodgers on tcdb. not that i will ever find their cards, or buckner's for that matter, at a price i am willing to pay.

not so long ago, i wouldn't have given the mengler set a second thought. it was too plain, too basic, and not what i thought a baseball card should be. becoming more of a completist (or at least a more fervent player and team collector) of dodgers from this era over the last several years had me thinking otherwise.

adding the sutton card and again seeing how truly simplistic the mengler cards are had me thinking about my early collecting days when i eschewed sets like the ones tcma put out in the late 1970's because they lacked any sort of design or name or team affiliation on the front. today, i have no problem adding cards like this 1979 tcma the 1950's sandy koufax

or this 2019 bowman heritage dustin may

to my collection. yes, they are basic, but they are also baseball cards of players that i collect.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - setting your guardians down edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he took the mound against the guardians this past wednesday night in cleveland. he struck out 4 batters to give him 115 strikeouts on the season. those 4 guardians that he k'd increased his career total to 2,922.

in honor of his performance, here are 4 cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,919 through 2,922.

2,919 - 2019 bowman heritage veterans/rookies

2,920 - 2020 topps gallery heritage

2.921 - 2021 topps allen & ginter silver portrait

2,922 - 2022 topps allen & ginter pitching a gem

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who struck out 5 in his return from the il on tuesday, has a career strikeout total of 2,960. kershaw is now 38 k's behind greinke and 78 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw pitched only two innings against the guardians, as the grounds crew rolled out the tarp right after kershaw recorded his fourth strikeout of the night. there was no rain, however, until 28 minutes later. curious.

it looks like kershaw's next start will come against the diamondbacks in los angeles early next week, meaning he won't start on short rest in boston this weekend. regardless of when he makes his next start or how many k's he posts, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!