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!

spirit of 76

it's independence day today, and if all went well i was at the ballpark watching the twins and tigers. i last went to a fourth of july game in 2013, so it had been awhile since i celebrated our nation's birthday with our nation's pastime.

i will be on the lookout for some topps now cards tomorrow, but of course there are cards to share today, including this 2020 topps hyun-jin ryo independence day parallel

that i found in a bargain bin some time ago.

the design topps used in 2020 was pretty elaborate compared to what they were using when 2022 topps update came along. i found this ryan pepiot independence day parallel

in a pack or team break, and the design really isn't much different from the money grab factory set gold star parallels that topps put out the same year.

the first two cards are numbered to 76, of course, to go along with their designs.

panini doesn't number their independence day parallels, and they are pretty consistent with white stars on blue backgrounds, or blue stars on white backgrounds. i found these next cards in various bargain bins sometime within the last year.

2019 panini donruss manny machado

2021 panini donruss dale murphy

2022 panini donruss manny machado

2023 panini donruss ichiro

the first of those four i chose because it's a dodger card. the other three because i have little will power when it comes to bargain boxes and parallels.

this last card came from the show i went to in houston and set me back a buck

that's an independence day commemorative patch card from 2017 topps, and topps matched the photo to an actual 4th of july game.

whether you are at the ballpark or doing something else today, happy 4th of july!

k is for kershaw. and kountdown.

after his start against the padres on cinco de mayo, clayton kershaw was tied with jim bunning on the all-time strikeout leaderboard with 2,855 k's. that is significant to me because bunning has always been the guy to me who got closest to 3,000 strikeouts without reaching the milestone. every non-active pitcher who has tied bunning has gone on to get to 3k. now, with both zack greinke and clayton kershaw working between bunning and 3,000 i am waiting to see if bunning will once again become the top man south of 3,000.

i have mentioned it many times before that, as a young fan, 3,000 was a number that i fixated on - both for hits and strikeouts. i remember watching the dodgers and padres on tv late in the 1978 season as gaylord perry became just the third man to strike out 3,000 batters in a career, joining walter johnson and bob gibson. within the next few seasons, several more pitchers that i followed in earnest joined the club, including steve carlton, nolan ryan, tom seaver, fergie jenkins, bert blyleven, and don sutton.

kershaw is another pitcher that i follow quite earnestly, and he pitched on wednesday against the brewers. he got the win and recorded 8 strikeouts, giving him 2,863 for his career.  now that he is past bunning, i am going to start counting down the 145 strikeouts he needs to get to 3,000. so, here are 8 clayton kershaw cards to celebrate strikeouts 2,856 - 2,863:

2,856 - 2013 bowman hometown parallel

2,857 - 2016 topps gold parallel

2,858 and 2,859 - 2019 panini donruss franchise features base and bronze parallel

2,860 - 2020 panini prizm red white & blue prizm

2,861 - 2020 topps on demand 3d

2,862 - 2021 panini donruss optic lime green prizm

2,863 - 2022 topps gallery

to summarize, kershaw is now in sole possession of 21st place all-time in strikeouts, and stands 137 k's short of 3,000. he trails zack greinke by 46 strikeouts, and is a decent bet to overtake him by season's end.

kershaw's next start looks like it will be on tuesday against minnesota. if that is the case, i am hoping for a big number as the last time he faced the twins, he struck out 13. i'll be sure to continue the kountdown regardless of how many he k's, as i have a lot of kershaw cards at the ready. stay tuned!

the circus came to town

for several seasons, david at tribe cards hosted a unique card giveaway.  he would open a pack a day (sometimes more), and the contents of those packs would be set aside for people based on a draft. some years, participants chose teams, and some years the cards were divvied up by individual players.  the last version of david's giveaway - the pack-a-daily circus - was initially a player based draft.

of course, as we all know, life gets in the way sometimes, and david ultimately decided to package up the results of that last giveaway in to team lots rather than sort by the players drafted. it was first come, first serve to claim teams, and while i was too late to claim the dodgers, i did manage to claim the twins, and a couple of months later, a box of cards was in my mailbox!

perhaps the most unique card in the box was this msa disc of rodney cline carew

it is a 1978 papa gino's disc

this was a regional issue that included only american league players. it was issued in boston, and so the majority of the 40 cards in the set are red sox players.

from one twins legend to another, here is a 2019 panini donruss willians astudillo card:

catcher cards are the best for non-licensed sets.

there were other cards near and dear to me in the box, like this 1990 o-pee-chee shane rawley card

even though o-pee-chee wasn't doing the team variation in 1990, i still appreciate the "now with" text.

oh my o-pee-chee! indeed.

there were some cards of the father of the reigning nfl mvp

the 1993 fleer ultra card is nice because it shows the gene autry retired number banner in the background. i once considered starting a mini-collection of cards like this because i am a big fan of the history of the game and retired numbers are a big way that teams celebrate that history. in the end, however, i only collect cards that show the retired number 42 in the background.

side note - back in the metrodome days, i took a tour during twinsfest. the tour took us through the bowels of the stadium from the clubhouse to the press box, and it started in the twins' dugout. the tour guide pointed to a series of steps leading up from the dugout to the clubhouse tunnel and noted that only two players had ever cleared the full set of steps in a single bound. one was cal ripken jr, and the other was pat mahomes.  i found it curious that ripken (or anyone) would even risk injury to try to make that leap, but then again i've been in a locker room and there was a lot of stupid stuff going on.

back to the cards, there were a bunch from 2005 upper deck flyball, including this card of harmon killebrew

this set was some sort of interactive game, similar to mlb showdown maybe?

here's a card that was pretty popular here in the twin cities back in 2008:

even though johan had left the club.

most of the cards in the box will be heading to brian of highly subjective and completely arbitrary as part of our ongoing trading, but i did keep a couple of cards for myself, including this 2010 topps opening day orlando cabrera card

because tatooine.

i am also hanging on this this 2010 twins team card

while i no longer have a metrodome mini-collection, this card takes me back to those evenings spent under the teflon roof.  it also features the retired number banners (joe mauer is blocking tony oliva's banner), including the banner for jackie robinson, so it will go in my aforementioned mini-collection celebrating mlb's leaguewide retirement of number 42.  the card may also be the only one to feature r.a. dickey (number 39) as a twin!

in my eleven or so years of blogging, i've only hosted one or two group breaks and a small number of contests. even with that limited experience, i know that the pack-a-daily circus was a huge undertaking and a great display of the generosity that exists within this community.

thank you david!

at least there is one final tribute, finally

both joe mauer and adrian beltre announced their retirements before any 2019 baseball cards hit the shelves.  i dutifully reviewed the checklists for series 1 when it was published, hoping for a final tribute card for each of these personal favorites. i was disappointed when i saw their names only in insert sets.  beltre, at least, received a 1984 style insert (among many other inserts) with total career stats on the back (but only line-by-line starting with 2004).  mauer had nothing but relics, manu-relics, and the uniform evolution insert to his name.

then 2019 donruss came along with its checklist and lo and behold adrian beltre was included among the common base card receiving folk.  i finally snagged a copy:

the stats on the back are complete, but not presented yearly

i'll take it though.  

i bought in to beltre very early on as a dodger fan who had tired of the revolving door that existed at third base since the penguin's departure.  beltre was solid, but waited until his walk year to really showcase his premier offensive talent, putting the dodgers in a tough position. four years previously, the dodgers had gambled on potential with darren dreifort, re-signing him to a huge 5-year, 55-million dollar contract after a few underachieving seasons, and they lost. beltre had shown more than potential, but the dodgers chose to not beat seattle's 5-year, 64-million dollar offer, and so the revolving door continued for another decade or so.  thank goodness for justin turner today, but it was tough watching beltre continue to play great defense and hit home runs from one knee while wearing american league uniforms those past 14 years.

panini even gave beltre the variant treatment, and here is the blue jersey version now

it takes me back to the davey johnson dodger era a bit.

heritage has come and gone with no beltre or mauer, so now it's up to series 2 (unlikely) to right this wrong.  i suppose a veteran sp card in update (as was done with chipper jones in 2013) could happen. more likely, however, are cards in 2019 archives.  no matter what, i'll be checking checklists to see.