Retiring Dodgers’ legend Clayton Kershaw could be last of the 3000K club

Yeah, I'm going to call it. I'm going to retire

With that short statement, Clayton Kershaw marked the end of an era for the Los Angeles Dodgers and perhaps Major League Baseball

The 37-year-old lefty is the greatest pitcher of his generation and one of the best of all time

Friday night, he'll make the final start of his 18-year career. Kershaw became a member of one of the most exclusive clubs in sports on July 2nd

He reached 3,000 strikeouts. It was a milestone that likely made his decision Thursday that much easier

His resume includes 221 wins, three Cy Young Awards, 11 All-Star appearances, and two World Series championships

But 3,000 strikeouts is a milestone that few others will ever achieve

Only three active players are on the list. All will likely be Hall of Famers

After Kershaw, Chris Sale has the best chance to join the club with less than 500 strikeouts to go

and possibly Garrett Cole, if they can stay healthy. After those names, age and durability are the key factors

Two players to keep an eye on are Freddie Peralta and the reigning AL Cy Young winner, Tarek Skubal

But they need to stay on a 200 strikeout per year pace or it be an uphill climb Kershaw can add to his 3 strikeout total Friday night His recent appearances have kept the Dodgers atop the NL West He posted a

5-0 record with an ERA of 1.88 in August. Kershaw was asked Thursday why he's hanging it up now

when he can still compete. He said simply, you never want to pitch bad. You know, obviously we

have another month to play and you know we have a lot of great pitchers so everybody's role is

kind of up in the air at this point so I just didn't want this opportunity to pass by and

it just kind of felt like the right thing to do. Kershaw is well aware of the fact that the Dodgers

have four starters ahead of him in the pecking order for the playoffs and barring an injury to

one of those guys he'll likely come out of the bullpen in the playoffs which is why he wanted

to say goodbye to the fans now. It's been a wild ride, you know

and they've been behind us every step of the way, and it hasn't been a smooth ride

You know, we've had our ups and downs for sure. So I'm just super grateful to every single Dodger fan

that's come through. There will be a full house at Chavez Ravine Friday night

At last check, tickets on StubHub to see Kershaw's final start range from a high of $4,000 down to $200 just to get in the door

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis