final four like none before

this year marks only the second time that three of the four teams remaining in the baseball postseason are expansion teams, and it is the first time that two of the teams are from the 1977 expansion. ten years ago, the toronto blue jays (1977) faced the kansas city royals (1969), while the new york mets (1962) faced the chicago cubs.  this year, we have the blue jays facing the seattle mariners (1977), while the milwaukee brewers (1969 as the seattle pilots) face the los angeles dodgers.

there aren't really too many connections between the dodgers and brewers this year, with only a handful of players left on either team from the 2018 squads that faced off in that year's nlcs. here's a 2022 topps meijer purple parallel featuring pitchers that were brewers and dodgers

but have since moved on. this matchup also makes me think of the late don sutton who pitched in the world series for both clubs as well as guys like lance rautzhan, al downing, greg brock, rick dempsey, and willie randolph who suited up for both teams as well.

speaking of moving on, i will admit i was rooting for the tigers to advance to the alcs, but instead zack mckinstry

and his teammates are moving on to the offseason. 

the alcs will feature the two teams that were added to the american league in 1977

and i am hoping for the canadian team to return to the fall classic for the first time since 1993. 

there is the possibility, however, that we will have only the second world series in the division era that guarantees a first-time champion should both the brewers and mariners advance (1980 was the first). what a series that would be, with ultimate seattle bragging rights at stake.

i know it's hard to root for the dodgers with the stories that the other three teams can write with a world series win this year, but i am going to do so anyway.

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!

koufax on the mound and mays in the box

i recently went looking for some 2021 sandy koufax cards and came across the "lights out" insert from panini's donruss optic release. it really couldn't have been any more in tune with what i was looking for.  here's the regular insert

and here is the holo prizm version

i was looking for some new koufax cards specifically to add to this post, and you will see why these cards are perfect for it in just a moment.

my dad has been going through his photos and converting them from slides or 35mm negatives to digital prints. he sent me a few examples last summer, one of which included photos he took at dodger stadium on june 18, 1966 .

the dodgers were facing the giants that evening, and sandy koufax was on the mound. let's see some photos - 32 of them to be exact.

here's koufax warming up before the game:

and again:

i have to say, i didn't know the dodgers used to have a mound in front of the dugout in addition to the bullpens. you will notice that the exposure is not ideal, and somewhat reflects the panini cards up top. that's how you tie a post together!

i wonder if my dad was getting a dodger dog after taking those photos, because the next picture is from the bottom of either the first or second, with an unknown dodger batting against ray sadecki:

and we don't see koufax pitching until he faces future dodger dick dietz in the top of the third:

i first thought that the dodger batter might have been wes parker (who came to bat in the first inning) but now i think it is more likely jim lefebvre, who led off the bottom of the second. lefebvre was my dad's favorite position player (he liked don drysdale and koufax as 1 and 1a). the stance looks like lefebvre based on what we will see in a bit. 

now we move to the top of the fifth, with koufax looking in as he gets ready to pitch to hal lanier:

the score is 1-1 at this point, with the dodgers scoring on a wes parker walk and stolen base, and a tommy davis single, and the giants getting on the board with a home run from jim davenport. it was his fourth and final career home run off of koufax.

same at bat, here's a pitch to lanier

who grounded out to end the inning and strand ollie brown on third.

here's a shot of the left field pavilion

i don't remember dodger stadium when the dimensions just past the bullpen were set at 370 feet from home plate. the change occurred sometime before the 1977 season, as i watched a re-broadcast of a game from the 1977 world series on mlb network shortly after don sutton passed away. howard cosell referred to a change in dimensions at dodger stadium, and tom seaver (who was an analyst on that broadcast) specifically mentioned the change in the dimensions from 370 to 360.

now we're in the top of the sixth, with koufax pitching to davenport:

that's willie mays kneeling on deck. 

and now here's mays at bat:

that's pretty cool.  mays flew out in the first, and then popped out in the 4th and again here in this at bat.

in the bottom of the sixth, maury wills and wes parker walked, and they are getting their secondary leads in this photo:

notice willie mccovey heading towards the plate - it has me thinking willie davis was trying to bunt. that plan was abandoned when wills was caught stealing third base:

parker took second on the play and later scored on another tommy davis rbi single.

here's a shot of the crowd along the third base side:

you don't see too many cardigans at the ballpark these days. somewhere in the press box at the top of the photo sits vin scully and jerry doggett. i like to think they are in the photo, anyway, 

in the top of the 7th, the dodgers are up 2-1. here's ollie brown approaching the plate with two outs:

he singled, but dietz struck out to end the inning. that was koufax's eighth k of the game.

this photo was taken during dietz's at bat

but i am not sure why.

in the bottom of the seventh, jim lefebvre was set to lead off. here he is leaving the on deck circle:

and here he is at the plate:

and here he is rounding third on a home run trot!:

the left field scoreboard lets us know that lefebvre, the reigning nl rookie of the year, now has 14 homers on the season:

on to the bottom of the 8th, and the giants bring in bill henry to face wes parker who is going to lead off the frame:

the score is stll 3-1 and there looks like there is action in the dodger bullpen:

note you can see the "three sisters" palm trees just to the right of the foul pole.

i believe this is still wes parker's at bat:

he struck out, and henry retired willie and tommy davis to move things to the top of the ninth.

willie mays led of the ninth against koufax, and my dad took a photo:

mays walked and went to third on a single by jim ray hart.

here's cap peterson at bat with mays on third and a chance to do some damage:

he lined out for the first out. next up was willie mccovey:

who flew out to center field:

there's willie davis making the catch with tommy davis running over.

koufax had struck out hal lanier in the top of the eighth for his ninth strikeout of the night, and he faced ollie brown with two outs in the ninth:

brown struck out, and there were handshakes to be had:

take note of the blue cushion hitting the grass there - we will revisit that in a moment. first, here's the final line score:

a complete game from koufax, who notched his 12th win of the season enroute to a 27-9 record and a third cy young award.

here's some dodger bullpen residents heading to the clubhouse:

i think the person in the foreground is phil regan.

here's the left field scoreboard again with the attendance and a message regarding koufax's strikeouts in the game and his career:

there are now fifty pitchers with more career strikeouts than koufax, but he passed four more of the ten in front of him in 1966. when he retired at the end of that season, he was seventh all-time.

so, it was seat cushion night at the ballpark, and the dodger faithful saluted koufax and his accomplishments by throwing the cushions on to the field:

here's one more photo of the cushions, an usher, and the right field scoreboard:

i wonder if the team regifted the cushions in 1967. 

i hope you enjoyed these photos as much as i did - it was a great night at the ballpark, no doubt!

is this retro?

steve garvey turns 73 years old today. he last played in the major leagues 34 years ago, which is certainly enough time for him to be consider "retro". that's how panini presented him in this year's donruss optic and national treasures releases.

garvey was included on the "retro series signature" checklist in optic, getting a base

and prizm card

here's the back, with some commentary on the guy who made me think more highly of hits than home runs

there is also a gold parallel

numbered to 10

which i was happy to acquire. i have no thoughts of buying the other versions - black finite 1/1 and gold vinyl 1/1 (both of which are on ebay now with ridiculous and high buy-it-nows, respectively) - in what was a surprisingly minimalistic parallel effort from panini.

as for national treasures, garvey was featured on a relic-only card, called "retro materials". i only have the base version

which is numbered to 99. there are a couple of parallels of this one - holo gold, holo silver, platinum blue 1/1, and printing plates - but i am content with one variety. of course the parallels aren't necessarily plain white swatches (i've seen a holo gold that looks like it had a piece of his warmup jacket that panini has been using for the last few years and a printing plate that had a bat piece) so never say never.

happy birthday to the garv! better to be considered retro than not considered at all, i guess.