I think I found myself a gem in the rough. Today I present you with what I believe to be the ball used for Clayton Kershaw’s 898th career strikeout on August 10, 2012.
This ball bears the Florida Marlins Park 2012 inaugural season stamp and is authenticated by MLB as a third inning foul tip by batter Donovan Solano, who would end up being Kershaw’s 899th career K.
Authentication processes at the time did not detail the same way as we see these days with multiple pitches, their speeds, pitch type, etc. So I did a little research and here’s what I came up with for the life of this ball.
In the prior at-bat, Kershaw faced opposing pitcher Mark Buehrle, and got ahead 0-2, the second strike coming on a ball fouled out of play. A new ball is introduced — the ball I believe I now own — and Kershaw missed high (73 MPH curve) on the next pitch and then away with a 94 MPH fastball on the following one. The third pitch is a 93 MPH fastball that Buehrle can’t catch up to and he’s down on a swinging strikeout; the catcher throws the ball around the horn.
Video shows Kershaw circling the mound and then waits for the third baseman throw him the ball and he gets right back on the mound. No new ball is introduced.
Kershaw then faces Solano, starting with a 94 MPH fastball down the middle of the plate, then an 84 MPH (changeup?) pitch off the plate. His next pitch is an 85 MPH curve that spikes at the plate and Solano swings. The ball hits either the bat (play by play said swing and miss) or the catchers knee saver/shin pad and then ricochets toward the Marlins dugout. A new ball is then introduced and Kershaw then misses with a ball and then gets Solano to swing and miss on another curveball in the dirt which the catcher gloves and tags the batter — the catcher keeps the balls and heads to the dugout.
Given that the ball is authenticated as a “foul tip” and Solano only swing twice in that atbat, it’s likely the ball is from the third pitch of the atbat, which with a swing and an audible “thud” and ricochet could be construed by the authenticator as a foul tip. And we know that ball to have been used for pitches 2 and 1 of the Solano atbat, which I also believe to have been used for the final three pitches of the previous atbat which ended in a strikeout.
Not sure if I’d be able to get MLB to add a note to the authentication, but the evidence looks pretty strong to me and I’ll plan to display it in my collection as such. It’s NFS anyway. 🙂
Link to the YouTube video (full game) is here (https://youtu.be/-cIpHsjTmEE) The Buehrle atbat is around the 47:00 mark. This ball was in play for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
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