on the last day of the 2022 season, the photo tile accompanying the all-time career strikeout leader page at baseball reference looked like this:
the day after the last day of the 2022 season, it looked like this:
so long, cy young - clayton kershaw is now 24th all-time in career strikeouts with 2,807.
at this point, i would say it's safe to assume that both justin verlander and max scherzer will pass phil niekro and greg maddux in 2023, and they may well get past walter johnson and the 3500 k mark if they pitch beyond this year. and, with kershaw returning for 2023, he should pass mike mussina, mickey lolich, and jim bunning. greinke is back, but kershaw may pass him as well given the low strikeout rate greinke showed last year. i hope both of those guys stick it out to reach 3,000 strikeouts, but we will have to see. for almost all of my life, jim bunning was the guy i knew as the pitcher who had the most strikeouts without getting to the 3,000 milestone, but now it looks like it could well be either greinke or kershaw.
kershaw remains my favorite dodger, and will be until he no longer wears their uniform. i have a habit of adding his cards to my collection every chance i get, and so i have many cards that have arrived over the last year that i haven't shown off before. there are a lot!
this 2011 topps target hanger pack exclusive
is one of my favorite cards i've picked up in the last year. these are fairly tough to find at this point and i was happy to see one pop up with a decent price.
this is the 2011 topps lineage venezuelan variation
as you may be able to discern from the card back.
here's a 2015 panini black friday panini collection card
that conveniently rounded out my last comc order
this 2021 panini donruss holo red
was sent courtesy of the diamond king
and now for an obscene amount of kershaw cards with or without comment:
2008 bowman draft picks & prospects gold parallel
2009 bowman chrome
2010 bowman chrome refractor
2010 topps walmart black
2014 topps update all-star stitches
2015 topps black parallel
2016 topps mlb debut
2018 topps archives snapshots black & white
2018 topps heritage new age performers
2018 topps high tek - three different patterns!
2018 topps on demand postseason
2019 panini prizm red prizm
2019 topps chrome pink refractor
2020 topps factory set gold star parallel
2020 topps heritage photo variation
2020 topps heritage clubhouse collection
2020 topps on demand black and white
2020 topps opening day blue and red parallels
2021 panini chronicles america's pastime
2021 topps chrome refractor/pink refractor/sepia refractor
2021 topps royal blue
2021 topps factory set gold star
2021 topps factory set foil board
2021 topps factory set gold star (base)
2021 topps project 70
2021 topps triple threads aqua marine
2022 topps 1987 and 1987 silver pack
2022 topps chrome refractor
2022 topps factory set gold star
2022 topps holiday
2022 topps holiday ornament
2022 topps opening day
2022 topps pristine
2022 topps throwback thursday 1967-68 hockey design
2022 topps tribute
2022 topps update royal blue
ok now for some non-licensed stuff
and even more non-licensed stuff:
how about some minis and other non-standard sized cards:
so many parallels to chase!
multi-player cards count, too!
now for some solo landscape parallels
this is a 2016 topps throwback thursday card
as is this one:
both use designs from the 1950s - 1955 bowman and 1958 topps tv westerns.
i went for even more tbt cards:
and now for some inserts/parallels using older topps designs that are not throwback thursday cards:
whew.
that's 123 cards of kersh that were new to me last year. and, i still have quite a few in my scanned folder that i will hold off on sharing for now even though i am tempted to add 70 more so that the number of cards in this post matches the number of strikeouts kershaw needs to get to 3,000.
instead, however, i will show just one more card. it's my latest kershaw card purchase, although i don't have it in hand yet.
it's a 2020 topps clearly authentic autographed card, numbered to 30. this is my 12th certified kershaw auto and immediately one of my favorites. can't wait to see it in person once comc clears their queue!
after entering all of my kershaw cards at tcdb, my total stands at 1,117 unique which is good enough to place 5th among collectors on the site - at least as of last weekend when i last checked. i have a few more on the way (including the clearly authentic card above), so maybe i will get to 4th place for a spell. and, maybe someday, i will get to the point where i have one of his cards for every two of his career strikeouts - and i hope that means that i need at least 1,500 cards.
it's great to know that kershaw should already be in camp, and the dodgers' non-world baseball classic participating pitchers and catchers report tomorrow! rejoice!