the k is for kershaw kountdown continues

clayton kershaw was on the mound to kick off the dodgers’ road trip in milwaukee on monday night, and so the k is for kershaw kountdown is back.

kershaw pitched into the fifth inning and beyond for the first time this year, striking out 6 batters to give him 17 strikeouts for the 2024 season. those 6 brewers that he k'd increased his career total to 2,961.

in honor of his performance, here are 6 not seen on this blog before cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,956 through 2,961.

2,956 - 2020 topps chrome refractor

2,957 - 2020 topps chrome prism refractor

2,958 - 2020 topps chrome ben baller

2,959 - 2022 topps gold foil

2,960 - 2022 topps chrome prism refractor

2,961 - 2022 topps uk edition

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 18 k's behind greinke and 39 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw wound up pitching 5.2 innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks. the run he gave up scored on a home run allowed by joe kelly, but kelly and the rest of the dodger relievers held on to give kershaw his first win of the year.

kershaw should be back on the mound this weekend in saint louis. know that when kershaw makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

baller package from hyun-jin ryu

i was surprised to open a recent package and find a card from former dodger pitcher hyun-jin ryu!

that's a 2019 topps holiday relic, with a gift tag from the current blue jays ace/co-ace.  nice work by topps to make a plain white swatch look interesting for a change.

in all seriousness, that card and all of these to follow came from fuji - master commenter and friend to all blogs.

here's a 2001 pacific private stock game gear jersey card of shawn green

this is the "away" version - there's also a "home" version. these cards were the bomb back when they were released. i bought a pack for $20 at twinsfest that year and found a juan gonzalez bat card in my pack. such a novelty at the time!

now we get to the baller part of the package - a couple of 2020 topps chrome ben baller cards. max muncy

and corey seager

both showing their home run strokes.

fuji has a soft spot in his collection for steve garvey, and he shared a 1984 donruss action all-star card with me

it's oversized and is one of several similar donruss releases from the 1980's.

the most unusual (but not unexpected as mark had made a comment on a previous post about sending these cards) were several 1977 topps star wars cards:

these were sent because i had noted that i didn't have any star wars cards in my tatooine collection, ironically. by definition, these are all tatooine cards in that they feature scenes from the movie that were set on that planet. i would really like to find a stormtrooper on tatooine card, since that was the reference point i shared with my brother the first time we saw the 1971 topps brooks robinson world series highlight card back around 1978 - "it looks like he is searching for droids on tatooine" i told him, and an eventual mini-collection was born.

my brother and i collected these star wars sets when they were first released. looking at them now, i think it's odd that c3po is called see-threepio and r2d2 is artoo-detoo. i get "threepio" as a nickname of sorts. back then, i think this matched the action figure packaging so it wasn't weird to us.

thanks fuji! always appreciate your comments and cards!

talkin' baseball - brian, jackie, and the mick

recently, brian at highly subjective and completely arbitrary showed off 9 cards featuring the 1982 yankees as part of his ongoing series of posts related to teams of the 1980s. the post got me thinking about yankee cards from 1982 and i remembered one that i had come across a few years ago while researching a different set.

this is a 1982 asa the mickey mantle story card that features the mick playing first base during a spring training game against the dodgers. that's jackie robinson diving back to first, as the card tells us.  i had seen this card when i was looking up the similar 1982 asa the duke snider story set, but i didn't give it a lot of thought at the time.  after seeing brian's post, i went to sportlots and ordered the card for my collection.

the back of the card references the 1955 world series

which begs the question of why didn't they use a photo from said series on the front? no matter, it's a yankee card that i am happy to (finally) add to my dodger collection.

meanwhile, brian also sent me some cards over the summer - a great variety of cards, in fact. take a look:

2020 topps chrome ben baller brusdar graterol

another version of chrome, with the design interpreted by ben baller, i guess. this version is also different from the regular chrome version in that graterol's number has been corrected from "00" to "48".

2020 panini diamond kings mookie betts bat kings relic

my first dodger mookie relic. i continue to reap the benefits of brian's dodger mojo!

2019 topps clayton kershaw superstars of baseball/stars of the game

2006 upper deck special f/x jose cruz jr

there were other dodgers, too, but brian also likes to send me some tatooine cards that are new to my collection. this time was no exception.

2007 topps opening day grady sizemore gold parallel,

the indians had a few cards that looked like this in 2007, almost as if they played their home games near mos eisley.

1997 fleer mike sweeney

1998 pinnacle doug glanville

he'll be your doug.

1994 pinnacle jose vizcaino

with a normal-sized barry bonds lurking

1994 upper deck minors arquimedez poao

1995 upper deck collector's choice se orlando merced

and a pair of 2008 bowman yunel escobar cards

one being the blue parallel and one being the base.

it's been a long year here in the twin cities, and not meeting up with brian at a card show has been one of the byproducts of the conditions under which we are living. i'm hoping we can meet up sometime in 2021, but until then we will keep on trading.  thanks brian!