A great piece of baseball history - Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw's jersey from his very first Major League game. Every eye in the baseball world was on Dodger Stadium the afternoon of May 25th, 2008 when Kershaw took the mound against the Cardinals. For the previous 4 years mystery and legend swirled around the kid from Texas as tales of his pitching feats were recounted. The Kershaw story began at Highland Park High where he averaged more than 2 strike outs per inning and pitched an all-strike out perfect game in the play offs before it was prematurely ended out of mercy for the opposing team. USA Today proclaimed him "High School Pitcher of the Year" and the Dodgers shelled out 2.3 million to get his signature on a contract. Kershaw and his 95 MPH fastball proceeded quickly up the minor league ladder until that famous spring training game against Boston in 2008. In what has now become part of MLB history, Kershaw threw a curve ball past Sean Casey that started behind his back and broke so hard it crossed the plate as a strike. Broadcast on live TV, the pitch left broadcaster Vince Scully speechless and made baseball fans salivate waiting for the kid's big league debut.

That day came on May 25, 2008. Mixing his 90 MPH-plus fastball with that devastating curve, Kershaw pitched 6 innings and held St. Louis to 5 hits. Though giving up 2 runs he struck out 7 of the 25 Cardinals he faced and left the game ahead 3-2. After the game grizzled veteran manager Tony LaRussa proclaimed the 20 year-old lefty "legit." It was a good taste of what Dodger fans have come to expect from Kershaw. Now 6 seasons into a career that more than likely will culminate with a plaque in Cooperstown, Kershaw holds Major league Baseball's lowest career ERA going back to the days of Walter Johnson. He's been most often compared to Sandy Koufax, but unlike the Dodger legend, Kershaw began his mound dominance right out of the box. It will be exciting to watch where Kershaw's career takes him, and this 2008 Dodgers jersey is a physical reminder of where it all began.

The timeless Los Angeles Dodgers home white jersey shows good game use with some light staining and turf marks with some random, loose strands on the lettering. The front boasts the "Dodgers" script in royal blue tackle twill, below which Kershaw's original number "54" is sewn in red tackle twill. This is the only career start he wore number 54, switching to number 22 shortly thereafter. The left sleeve has the iconic "LA" in Dodger Blue and the right features the patch celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Dodger Stadium, the location of Kershaw's first Major league appearance. Majestic size "50" label is located in the lower left front tail along with "PROPERTY OF LOS ANGELES DODGERS" tag. The jersey's back has "KERSHAW" and his number "54" in Dodger Blue tackle twill. The game's best southpaw has signed the number "5" on the back of this historic jersey in white pen, adding "MLB Debut Game Used 5/25/08 7K's". Two Steiner holograms are affixed adjacent to the signature.  We feel it is important to add that Gregory Polanco's MLB Debut jersey recently auctioned off for $26,100 with a total MLB experience at the time of under 1 week. Based on Kershaw's history, and his future, we have to think this should be worth exponentially more than that.

The jersey has been photo matched to a photograph in the Getty Image archives taken during his debut game. It's not often a photo matched game used jersey from a star of Kershaw's magnitude comes around, let alone one from a future Hall of Famer's debut performance, but here it is. This is a spectacular piece of memorabilia from the most exciting southpaw to come along in decades. Letter of Authenticity from MeiGray Group who did the photo match and Certificate of Authentication 88937 from Steiner.

Auction Notepad