Clayton Kershaw’s 3,000 K's was a subtle personal attack on my age
Scribbled Notes: Time's cruel march, Clayton's catchers, the Ryan-Carlton chase, Where Wolf's of Baseball
Scribbling from Albuquerque
The scheduling Baseball Gods were smiling down on me Wednesday: a day game for the Albuquerque Isotopes, allowing me to watch the entire game at night when Clayton Kershaw reached 3,000 career strikeouts.
I tuned into the Dodgers pregame show and heard one of the announcers say, “I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming when he debuted at age 20.”
Then I started screaming at the TV like a crazy old man.
We actually did see this coming. The expectations for Kershaw were ridiculous. We envisioned multiple Cy Young awards, no hitters, 3,000 strikeouts, 300 wins, World Series titles. All of it.
I can’t stress this enough: it was not fair, yet it seemed reasonable.
I remember it all vividly. It was my first year as the embedded reporter for the Dodgers Radio Network and co-host of Post Game Dodger Talk with Ken Levine. It was also the Dodgers final spring training in Vero Beach, Florida.
I was there when Kershaw made his first spring training appearance against the Red Sox, brought over from minor league camp and wearing #96, and struck out Sean Casey with a curveball that Vin Scully famously called, “public enemy #1.”
Here’s a clip from MLB Network of Casey saying, “I’m a .300 hitter and he made me feel like it was 6 years old.”
Dodgers manager Joe Torre compared Kershaw to Sandy Koufax before Kershaw ever made his MLB debut. Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt told our radio audience, "he's the kind of kid you dream about."
Kershaw was the 7th overall pick in 2006, when Paul DePodesta was still the Dodgers general manager and Logan White was the scouting director. That was the same draft when Tim Lincecum was selected 10th by the Giants and Max Scherzer followed at 11th by the Diamondbacks.1
Throughout spring training, Ken and I discussed if Kershaw should make the Opening Day roster.2 Ned Colletti was the GM by then and Kershaw began the year at Double-A Jacksonville. No exaggeration, multiple times a week, usually after a starting pitcher had a bad outing or someone got hurt, me and Ken and our callers debated if, or when, Kershaw should make his debut.
It “finally” happened on Sunday, May 25, 2008. He was still only 20 years old. I remember that Ken Gurnick, one of the finest beat writers I’ve ever marveled at, told me that he canceled his flight to the next city and changed his schedule because he absolutely had to cover Kershaw’s debut.
Kershaw was destined for greatness from Day 1 – and that's why everything that he’s accomplished is that much more impressive. Kershaw was setup to disappoint based on the hype. But he didn't. He was somehow even better than the hype. He's unlike any other pitching prospect over the last 20 years in this respect.
We’ve seen more “can’t miss prospects” who missed than those who succeeded.
In a town known for glitz and glamour, Kershaw was the opposite. He grinded. He worked. He didn’t seek the spotlight. He grew a terrible beard and made fun of himself. He was a perfectionist, down to the exact minute when he left the clubhouse, start stretching, left the bullpen mound, and left the dugout to take the field.
Truth be told, it didn’t happen immediately. Kershaw made eight starts in the majors and was sent back to the minors with a 4.42 ERA. Three weeks later, he was back in the majors, gave up 10 hits and five runs at Coors Field, then recorded his first win on July 27 after six scoreless innings against the Nationals.
This is me interviewing Kershaw after the game and Russell Martin smashing his face with shaving cream. In the first photo, Kershaw is holding in his left hand an envelope with the free dinner he received from one of our sponsors.
My other vivid memory is how everyone with the Dodgers realized Kershaw’s potential and nobody wanted to screw it up. He was not ruthlessly hazed by jealous veterans. They watched out for him, nurtured him, taught him how to conduct himself as a pro, and made sure others didn't take advantage of him.
Gosh, we all look so young in that photo.
Kershaw was 20. I was 35.
Now he’s 37 and I’m closing on 52.
Time’s cruel march spares none of us.
Two months ago, Kershaw pitched in a rehab assignment at Oklahoma City against the Albuquerque Isotopes. Before my broadcast, I went down to watch him stretch and posed for this stupid photo like a stalker.
When Kershaw made his debut on May 25, 2008, he pitched against Jason LaRue, who was 34 years old and in his 10th year in the majors.
When LaRue made his debut on June 15, 1999, he caught against Rickey Henderson.
When Henderson made his debut on June 24, 1979, he played against Oscar Gamble.
When Gamble made his debut on June 15, 1969, he played against Ernie Banks, who made his debut on Sept. 17, 1953.
I could keep going. You get the point. We got from Kershaw to Ernie Banks in four degrees.3
👋 For new readers, “Scribbled Notes on a Cocktail Napkin” is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together whatever topics were on my mind this week.To catch a Clayton
This graphic was a cool idea by MLB social media to give some appreciation to the catchers of Clayton Kershaw. It’s remarkable that only 14 people have caught Kershaw during a career of 18 years, 438 games started and 2,787 1/3 innings.4
Looking at the list, my life in baseball flashed before my eyes. I’ve interviewed eight of them, called play-by-play of six of them at Triple-A, and Rod Barajas managed against the Isotopes.
A.J. Ellis is the leader with 920 strikeouts. If Kershaw was the “can’t miss kid,” Ellis was the “can’t make it kid.” He was an 18th round pick in 2003 who barely played his initial four years in the majors and didn’t reach Triple-A until his fifth year in 2008.
Not only did Ellis reached the majors, he played 11 years and caught Kershaw’s no-hitter. But early in his career, he was on the LA-Abq5 shuttle a lot, mostly based on when Brad Ausmus was healthy and hurt.6
One time, Ellis was once asked by a reporter if he was surprised about getting optioned back to the minors and he said7, “not really, because I was listening to Post Game Dodger Talk driving home from the game last night and heard Josh Suchon say it was going to happen.”
You know who is not on that list? Carlos Ruiz, the catcher who was shockingly traded for Ellis in August 2016.
This week’s Immaculate Grid: Randy Wolf
The home plate umpire who called the third strike for Kershaw’s 3,000th strikeout was Jim Wolf. He made his MLB umpire debut in August 1999. A few months earlier, younger brother Randy made his debut as a pitcher for the Phillies.
Besides the Wolf’s, the only other player-umpire MLB brother combo was catcher Tom Haller and umpire Bill. On July 14, 1972, Tom was the starting catcher for the Detroit Tigers with his older brother Bill calling balls and strikes. Tom’s team lost, 1-0, to the Royals.
“It’s a credit to baseball,” Tom said afterward. “It proves the game has integrity.”
However, when the Wolf’s were both in the majors, MLB enacted a rule that Jim could not be the home-plate umpire when Randy was pitching, but could work the bases.
In 2009, Randy Wolf was Kershaw teammate on the Dodgers. I remember Jim worked home plate during one of Randy’s spring training starts without issue. When I asked Randy about it, Randy said he didn’t even realize it was his brother until after the game.8
Randy used math to explain his brother reaching the majors as an umpire was more impressive, explaining that there are 750 major league players and only 60 major league umpires.
Math is hard, tracking strikeouts is harder
When Clayton Kershaw reached 3,000 strikeouts, we took for granted the number was correct. Right?
Before the internet, finding stats was not easy. Maybe The Sporting News printed them or you had to buy these gigantic reference books. Even then, sometimes people made counting mistakes.
Which leads to the stories of the floating statistical milestones.
On Oct. 1, 1978, in his final start of the season, Gaylord Perry needed 10 strikeouts to reach 3,000 strikeouts. After nine innings, Perry was at 2,999 strikeouts. He won the Cy Young award that season, but he was 40 years old and the future is never guaranteed. The game went into extra innings and Perry went back to the mound for the 10th inning.
With two outs, Perry struck out Joe Simpson looking for his 3,000th strikeout.
Except … as I learned this week from Joe Posnanski, it was later revealed that due to a counting error, Perry had actually reached 3,000 strikeouts in the eighth inning of the same game.9
“Both” of Perry’s 3,000th strikeout victims was Joe Simpson.10
On April 27, 1983, Nolan Ryan needed five strikeouts to surpass “The Big Train” Walter Johnson’s 55-year-old record for career strikeouts. Ryan struck out pinch hitter Brad Mills in the eighth inning to break the record.
Except … it was later realized that Johnson actually had one more strikeout than previously known. In his next start, Ryan broke the record again. This time, striking out Hubie Brooks.
Ryan11 didn’t hold the record for long.
On June 7 of the same year, Steve Carlton passed Ryan for the most strikeouts in baseball history.
Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton exchanged the all-time strikeout record 15 times — fifteen times! — over the next year and a half. That does not even include the times they pitched on the same day and passed the all-time record back-and-forth, inning-by-inning.
Ryan finally surpassed Carlton for good on Sept. 5, 1984. Ryan finished with a mindboggling 5,714 strikeouts.
To put that number in perspective, Clayton Kershaw has averaged 232 strikeouts per season. If Kershaw stayed healthy and maintained that pace, it would take him another 11.7 seasons to surpass Ryan’s record. Kershaw would be 48 years old and the year would be 2036.
Summer Reading Book Update
I’m making it a goal to read one book on all 13 Isotopes roadtrips this season. We've had seven roadtrips so far: one was 3 games, one was 12 games, five were 6 games. I’m at 7 books read after 7 road trips.Not only did the Baseball Gods treat me well this week, the Public Library Hold Gods did as well.
All three of the books that I requested to be held came in this week. So now I’ve got three options for this next roadtrip.
I’ve wanted to read all three of these for quite awhile. If you want to recommend which one I should read first, let me know.
The 2006 Draft has gotta be the best in MLB history, at least for starting pitchers, right? Kershaw won three Cy Young awards, Scherzer won three and Lincecum won two.
The Dodgers rotation to begin the 2008 season, in order, was Brad Penny, Derek Lowe, Hung-Chih Kuo and Hiroki Kuroda. A mixing of Chad Billingsley, Esteban Loaiza and Chan Ho Park followed over the next couple months.
Eat your heart out Kevin Bacon.
Six of Kershaw’s catchers played for the Albuquerque Isotopes: A.J. Ellis, Brad Ausmus (on a rehab assignment), Drew Butera, Tim Federowicz, Danny Ardoin and Matt Treanor (as a Marlins affiliate).
The Marlins were the Albuquerque Isotopes first affiliate from 2003-2008, then the Dodgers from 2009-2014. The Dodgers left for Oklahoma City and the Rockies have been our affiliate since 2015.
Wanna hear a cool story? Brad Ausmus was renting a house in Los Angeles that summer and allowed A.J. Ellis to live with him — for free — whenever he was in the majors. Imagine that. A dude gets hurt, you take his place, and he gives you a free place to live until he’s healthy. You don’t hear those generous stories enough.
I’m obviously paraphrasing this, but it was almost exactly those words. I felt awful that I told A.J. Ellis he was going to the minors live on the radio as he drove home. But also, yeah, my ego loved that A.J. gave an incredible shoutout to Post Game Dodger Talk.
I believed Randy. He was genuinely shocked when told his brother was the ump for his spring training game.
Gaylord Perry’s opponent in the game that he became the 3rd member of the 3,000 strikeout club was Don Sutton, who struck out one batter in six innings in that start and was at 2,378 strikeouts in his career. Sutton became the 8th member of the 3K club five years later on June 24, 1983.
Joe Simpson is a member of the Albuquerque Professional Baseball Hall of Fame
Nolan Ryan is one of the owners of the Triple-A Round Rock Express. They got their nickname because Nolan Ryan’s nickname was The Ryan Express. The Isotopes play the Express next week.