Last night the White Sox scuffed up Clayton Kershaw for 9 hits, 4 earned runs in 6 innings of work. However, Kershaw and the Dodgers managed to hold off the Sox in a 5-4 victory. Clayton didn’t earn the victory, but it did strike out his 2998the,99th and 3000th batters.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t at Chavez Ravine for the game, nor did I plop down 5 quid for Soxvision. I did get to hear a couple innings on the radio on my way home from work. I say unfortunately, because Clayton is one of my favorite players and I love watching the dude pitch. I love watching his pregame warm-up, his bullpens and watching him interact with teammates and fans when he’s not pitching that day. The man is a horse, one that has suffered through a boatload of injuries over the years-mostly back-related. I’ve seen him pitch gems and I’ve seen him stink up the joint. I appreciate his postgame honesty regardless of the outcome. While he doesn’t need a personal caddy like some HOF pitchers, his relationship with early battery mate, A.J Ellis was especially entertaining to witness.

Along with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, he’s been one of the most dominant starters of this era, and It’s been suggested that he will be the last of the 3000K men. It’s hard to imagine any starting pitcher lasting 15+ seasons any longer, let alone with one franchise. Fifteen seasons ago when his star was on the rise, a so-so performance like last night’s wasn’t what anyone would expect for such an historic milestone.

Some 30 years ago, I was at Wrigley Field for Goose Gossage’s 300th career save, and I don’t remember it registering a blip on anyone’s radar. I’m pretty sure reliever Pat Perry earned the victory. Somewhere I have a Gossage signed scorecard from that day, but I’ll bet I’m the only one. Over the coming years, I expect an additional 50K fans will claim they were at the game.