frankendodger sheet 45 (cards 397-405) - nine cards chosen for this page; number 400 will shock you...

here's sheet number 45 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 397-405:

 and the back:

these cards are:

397. 1991 topps eddie murray
398. 1972 topps larry hisle
399. 1992 o-pee-chee gary carter
400. 1969 topps don drysdale
401. 1958 topps don bessent
402. 1994 score jim gott
403. 2010 topps heritage jackie robinson
404. 1993 score select henry rodriguez
405. 2012 topps nathan eovaldi

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are really two no brainers on this sheet - the 1972 larry hisle card and the 1992 o-pee-chee gary carter card. both were shoo-ins for the set.

about the cards:

i started collecting when topps was not making separate cards for all-stars.  so, i was used to seeing an all-star designation on a player's base card (this was from 1975 through 1981 - a run that matched steve garvey's reign as the national league starting first baseman (1974 through 1980) and i was actually relieved when topps returned to the habit of making separate cards for all-stars in 1982 since that would have been the first year that garvey wouldn't get an all-star designation on his base card.  i couldn't deal with the shame - seriously, i was bummed about not seeing whatever star or shield topps was going to use in 1982, and then i was happy to find out that there were separate cards for all-stars.  anyway, the 1991 set is probably my favorite set for the separate all-star cards in the post-1981 world, and this steady eddie card is one of two (mike scioscia being the other) that the dodgers have in the subset.

because i started collecting in 1978, i knew larry hisle as the reigning american league rbi leader (as a twin) and also as a new brewer thanks to that year's topps set.  i later learned to appreciate the fact that topps kept hisle as a twin on the league leader card even as they airbrushed him into a brewer hat and jersey on his base card, but at the time i was just confused.  so, i studied the back of hisle's card and saw that he had been signed by the brew crew as a free agent in november of 1977.  nowhere on the back of his card, however, was there any mention of being a dodger (although i did notice that the 1972 season was missing from his stats), so imagine my surprise when i came across his 1972 topps card a couple of years later.  it turns out that the dodgers traded for hisle, sending tom hutton to the phillies in october of 1971.  unfortunately for hisle, the dodgers also dealt for frank robinson in december of 1971 which resulted in hisle spending the 1972 season in the minors. in november of 1972, the dodgers sent hisle to the cardinals who quickly flipped him to the twins.  so, hisle never played for the dodgers but we dodger fans have this 1972 topps card to remember him by and it is probably my favorite 'zero year' card (right up there with the 1974 topps traded tommie agee card).

at number 399 we have another favorite card of mine. this 1992 o-pee-chee card uses the same photo of gary carter as his topps counterpart, but it is just one of several 'tribute' cards that the canadian card maker produced for their retiring baseball hero.  there was one card for each team for which carter played - expos,

mets,

giants,

dodgers,

- and then a fifth tribute card

recognizing his return to les expos for the 1992 season. the first four cards, including the one above, focused solely on his experience with that particular team. it was just a great subset from o-pee-chee - if only the expos had brought fan favorite rusty staub in for a third go-around in 1986 and given o-pee-chee the idea for a similar set...

next we have the fourth big hero number of the set - card number 400.  at 100, i have replaced matt kemp with hubie brooks to eliminate any player or set duplication in the first 20 pages.  the numbering of the 1990 bowman brooks card is just happenstance, but at number 200 we had sandy koufax. at 300, clayton kershaw.  and now at 400 we have don drysdale's (unfortunately) final topps card.  i passed over a more obvious choice to put big d's card here, but drysdale deserves it. this card recounts his 6 straight shutouts and 58-2/3 scoreless innings streak during the previous season, as well as his 1962 cy young award.  drysdale was only 14-12 in 1968 despite his streak, and his era of 2.15 was over a full run higher than the unanimous cy young award winner that year - bob gibson.

another don, don bessent, takes spot 401 with his 1958 topps card.  bessent was a solid reliever for the brooklyn dodgers in both 1955 and 1956, pitching well in the world series in each of those years. he made the move to los angeles with the club, but injuries cut his career short with 1958 being the last year he appeared in the majors.

jim gott's horizontal score card is nice - especially with the dodger stadium background, but it is not the most interesting horizontal gott card in my collection. that distinction belongs to his 1992 pinnacle sidelines subset card (this one is a ttm auto)

with the yeonis cespedes variation card in 2016 topps series 2 (showing cespedes on a ranch with a horse) i wonder if there will be a return to these types of cards.  i hope not. it's interesting, but ultimately not what i am looking for in a baseball card set.

i do not know why topps did not include a jackie robinson card in the original baseball thrills subset of their 1961 set, but it was nice to see this card in the 2010 heritage set.

one thing that comes to mind when i look at henry rodriguez's 1993 score select card is that score continued the design of the card on to the back.  that doesn't happen too often, but it works here.  i am also reminded that the dodgers essentially chose billy ashley, karim garcia, and/or todd hollandsworth over rodriguez, and he went on to make many fans question that decision.

last up is nathan eovaldi and his 2012 topps card. this card makes me a little sad, and it's not because i thought that eovaldi was a future ace or anything.  i'll explain.  eovaldi was traded to the marlins during the 2012 season in the hanley ramirez trade.  i was at dodger stadium for the august 24th game  later in the season between the dodgers and marlins that marked his return to chavez ravine (it was also the game in which chad billingsley was injured and ultimately lost for the season).  eovaldi allowed a home run to hanley, along with andre ethier and juan rivera in that game.  but what i really recall about that game is that it marked the end of the dodgers as i knew them.  earlier in the year, i wrote that i was afraid that the dodgers would become just another big market team trying to buy its way to a championship like the red sox and yankees.  that night i spent at dodger stadium was also the night that the dodgers and red sox came to terms on the adrian gonzalez/carl crawford/josh beckett deal that saw the dodgers take on a ridiculous amount of salary for the primary purpose of adding gonzalez whom they had claimed on waivers earlier in the day.  i had seen the waiver claim news earlier in the day but figured the red sox would just pull gonzalez back, but then people at the stadium were talking, including one guy who claimed to know ben cherington and said that a deal was going to happen.  the next day, when i saw the details of the trade, i was a bit sad.  i'm still a fan, but it's not the same these days as the gamesmanship has changed, and i addressed my feelings in a post not too long after the trade went down.  anway, seeing eovaldi's 2012 topps card makes me sad.

cards that didn't make the cut:

for quite a while, the first spot on this page was manned by a 1995 fleer ultra garey ingram card

at number 397, but i decided to replace it with a different dodger who wore 33 primarily because there is a 1995 ultra card on sheet 44.  other cards not making the grade for one reason or another include 1968 topps jim grant at number 398, 1998 upper deck wilton guerrero at number 399, 1957 topps dodgers sluggers (carl furillo, gil hodges, roy campanella, and duke snider)

and 1977 topps steve garvey

at number 400 (can you believe it?!?!?!), 1998 upper deck eddie murray at number 401, 1971 topps dodger team at number 402, 1992 topps stadium club mitch webster at number 403, 1962 topps tim harkness at number 404, and 1994 topps finest ramon martinez at number 405.

my favorite card on the page:

because i love me some o-pee-chee (especially when it's different than topps), the 1992 gary carter card is my favorite on this page - and not just because it's canada day!

final thoughts:

this was a longer post with some great cards that mean something to me.  i am still a bit torn about not putting garvey in the 400 spot as that means he won't be in a hero spot in the set (topps did give him number 100 in the 1987 set, but he was a padre then), but i'm not going to make a change.  i have made some other changes, however, including making the hubie brooks card number 100 and adding corey seager to the set at number 150 (replacing another garvey card!).  so now there are no player or set duplications in the first 20 pages of the set.  some other updates i've made will be revealed later, so stay tuned. also, thanks to tony at off hiatus for the click-bait title idea. i thought it made sense for this post!

frankendodger sheet 42 (cards 370-378) - batmen and robin...

here's sheet number 42 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 370-378:

and the back:

these cards are:

370. 1976 topps ron cey
371. 2002 topps chad kreuter
372. 1981 topps jay johnstone
373. 1979 topps lance rautzhan
374. 2013 topps heritage luis cruz
375. 1958 topps pee wee reese
376. 1975 o-pee-chee steve yeager
377. 2004 topps robin ventura
378. 1985 fleer tom niedenfuer

the "no brainer" of the day:

lance rauthzhan had just one solo card as a dodger, and as a member of the team of my youth, his 1979 topps card was guaranteed a spot in the set.

about the cards:

ron cey lets his hat hair shine on his 1976 topps card.  cey was the starting third baseman for the national league in the all-star game for the second year in a row, but the voters would give pete rose the nod in '76.  the dodger voting contingent showed up in 1977, however, and got cey his all-star recognition back in time for the 1978 topps set.

chad kreuter's 2002 topps card reminds me of the time when he went into the stands at wrigley field after a fan stole his hat off of his head.  that happened in 2000, kreuter's first year with the dodgers.

on the other hand, jay johnstone's 1981 topps card reminds me of the time that he hit a pinch-hit home run in game 4 of the 1981 world series to cut the yankees' lead in the game to one and get the dodgers on the path to victory.  johnstone was cut by the team the following may, but he's still a dodger world series hero.

speaking of the postseason, lance rautzhan was the winning pitcher in the 'black friday' game in the 1977 nlcs against the phillies.  i was looking forward to a solo rautzhan card in 1978 following his postseason appearances, but he received a four-in-one rookie card instead.  i was happy to find this card in the 1979 topps release, but by then i had turned my attention to finding a bob welch card instead.  rautzhan passed away earlier this year and i was flattered that jon weisman used the 1978 topps card that i created for his news release on dodgers insider.

luis cruz was part of the crew that tried to hold down third base for the dodgers in 2012.  cruz, coming back to the big leagues after some time in the mexican league, manned the hot corner for the dodgers that year along with adam kennedy and juan uribe, but he also spent time at shortstop.  he hit just under .300 with 20 doubles in a total of 78 games that season, but his 2013 was not as productive and he was released by the club in july. i prefer cruz's 2013 topps flagship card

to this heritage card, but only one of them is number 374.

so nice to have a dupe of a vintage pee wee reese card.  and, this 1958 topps card being his final card makes it even better. it's too bad it's not a true final tribute, but topps wasn't into that back then.  i think we can all rest assured that there will be plenty of david ortiz cards in 2017 product.  for now, let's just add a 1959 pee wee reese card to the long list of cards that should have been and hopefully will eventually be made by topps someday.

i had a double of steve yeager's 1975 topps card, but then discovered that i also had a dupe of his 1975 o-pee-chee card, so guess which one made the set? the canadian card even has a stain on the back, no doubt from some backbacon grease or perhaps condensation from an ice cold labbatt's.  i should point out that yeager is also proof that not all folks with 'wayne' as a middle name are bad people.

and now we've arrived at robin ventura's fantastic 2004 topps card. it is one of my favorites from the set, thanks to jeromy burnitz pointing at home plate in the background and the fact that it documents ventura's inside the park home run hit against the braves on august 3, 2003.  i started following ventura's career when he was at oklahoma state thanks to some common ties although i had been aware of him for a couple years before he left for college.  when he joined the dodgers in 2003, i was pleased, but had the distinct feeling that it was too little, too late.  you see, while the dodgers were trying to fill the hole at third base that they created by trading ron cey away earlier in the decade, they passed on ventura in the 1988 draft.  instead, they took bill bene with the 5th pick and let ventura fall to the white sox at 10.  for the record, the dodgers also passed on ed sprague who proved to be a serviceable third baseman for a few seasons and so were left to feature jeff hamilton, mike sharperson, lenny harris, dave hansen, tim wallach, mike blowers, and todd zeile (among others) at third before adrian beltre kind of settled things down.  when ventura made it to la, he wound up playing mostly first base, although he did get to pitch in a game with the dodgers (and i was really hoping for a 'pressed into service' card from topps in series 2 of this year's flagship release). maybe in update? please?

the last card here is tom niedenfuer's 1985 topps card, on which the dodger reliever does a fine job of suttoning.  1985 was not a good year for niedenfuer, at least as far as dodger fans remember, thanks to a couple of pitches in the nlcs, but he set career highs in saves, innings pitched, and strikeouts that season.  i'm not going to harp on niedenfuer for what happened against the cardinals in '85, because i can't really complain about the team winning two world series titles in the 1980's.  i will mention, however, that niedenfuer was only part of the 1981 team - in fact, he was the guy for whom jay johnstone pinch-hit in game 4 against the yankees.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1985 fleer pedro guerrero at number 370, 1998 topps roger cedeno at number 371, 1998 pacific online thomas howard

at number 372, 1999 fleer tradition carlos perez at number 373, 1993 o-pee-chee todd worrell

at number 374, 1978 topps tommy john

at number 375, 1991 bowman eddie murray at number 376, 1990 upper deck john wetteland at number 377, and 1989 score jay howell at number 378.

my favorite card on the page:

robin ventura's 2004 topps card wins today with its iphr action and lurking burnitz.

final thoughts:

so here's a case where a classic vintage card (reese) trumps a significant dodger card (john) from my favorite set ever.  on a side note, john probably makes the brady bunch page (although his shoulders are turned) in bobby's spot. or maybe mike brady's spot. it depends on whether john is checking out alice or jan.

frankendodger sheet 34 (cards 298-306) - like a flamingo...

here's sheet number 34 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 298-306:

and the back:

these cards are:

298. 1972 topps claude osteen (in action)
299. 1987 donruss franklin stubbs
300. 2014 topps heritage clayton kershaw
301. 2003 donruss paul loduca
302. 1981 topps dodgers future stars (jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela)
303. 2011 topps update juan uribe
304. 1970 topps bill russell
305. 1958 topps clem labine
306. 2008 upper deck timeline russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1981 topps dodgers future stars card was one of the collection defining cards for me and my friends in 1981. it had to be in this set.

about the cards:

the local card shop where i grew up was both a card and comic store.  my brother, who read comics, and i would spend a lot of time there. one day we saw the 1972 topps claude osteen in action card and actually wondered if the guy had just one leg.  we found out that he did, in fact, have two legs, but we called this the flamingo card.  that was around the same time that we saw the 1971 topps brooks robinson card that we decided looked like he was searching for droids and the stolen death star plans on tatooine - the beginning of my tatooine collection.

we saw franklin stubbs' 1987 donruss opening day card early on in the set, but thankfully donruss used different photos for that set - something topps does a poor job of with their opening day release. now, the card above does show a confused looking stubbs as opposed to happy stubbs on the od card, but still, different photos.

here we are at the hero number.  i like that topps heritage often matches players/managers up with the same card numbers from the set being honored, and that is certainly the case here.  clayton kershaw gets number 300 in 2014 heritage, and sandy koufax was number 300 in the 1965 set.

i just wish they would match the pose, too.  kershaw's card uses a photo that makes me think the photographer just yelled "hey, clayton - over here!" and then snapped the photo.

not much to say about the 2003 donruss paul loduca card, so let's move on to the jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela rookie.  back in 1981, me and my friends were skeptical of fleer and donruss - topps was usually the priority for pack busting.  still, we bought a fair amount of the others, although most of my donruss cards that year came from buying a brick of dodger cards from a fellow collector.  anyway, fleer didn't even spell fernando's name correctly and donruss didn't bother to include him in their set, so it was topps all the way if you wanted to flaunt a fernando rookie.  throw in sweaty mike scioscia, and it was the card to have as fernandomania took over.  love this card.

i appreciate topps using a photo of juan uribe in the baby blue throwbacks for his 2011 update card. i still think the dodgers should have worn the 1916 checkered uniforms of the robins this season - it is the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance, after all.  i also appreciate topps giving outfielder bill russell a card of his own in 1970.  he did play in 98 games for the dodgers in 1969, but with topps putting bill buckner (one game in 1969) over steve garvey (three games in 1969), one is never certain of the criteria for inclusion in a set.

the photo and hat positioning on clem labine's 1958 topps card give the impression that he had a very long cranium.  not 1988 o-pee-chee delino deshields long, but long nonetheless.  finally we have a russell martin card from the 2008 upper deck timeline set - specifically the subset that pays homage to the 2004 legends set.  four years is pretty quick to re-use a design, but i don't mind since i am a fan of the timeless teams set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

aside from the 1965 topps koufax card at the hero number 300, here are some other cards that could have been included but weren't:  1961 topps jim golden

at number 298, 1988 donruss mickey hatcher

at number 299, 1981 donruss jay johnstone at number 300, 1958 topps randy jackson at number 301, 1980 topps dodgers team card at number 302, 1994 leaf ramon martinez at number 303, 1992 bowman jose offerman at number 304, steve garvey's newest card (from 2016 topps archives)

at number 305, and 1984 topps dodgers batting & pitching leaders (pedro guerrero/bob welch) at number 306.

my favorite card on the page:

some tough competition, and bill russell's rookie card falls just short of the perconte/scioscia/valenzuela card - perhaps my favorite multi-player rookie card ever.

final thoughts:

including garvey in this year's archives release, as a short print no less, follows the trend. in 2013, dave lopes got the sp treatment with a 1976 style card.  the following year, it was bill russell's turn with a 1973 card (auto'd only).  last year i was expecting the garv, but eric karros and shawn green got the call for the auto only insert set instead.  here's hoping the penguin shows up in 2017.

in other archives related news, i've entered a couple of contests over at sport card collectors.  one is archives related, and the other is a sports challenge contest - both with some great prizes.  check them out!

frankendodger sheet 32 (cards 280-288) - with three consecutive rookies of the year...

i have updated this page since the original post ran.

here's sheet number 32 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 280-288:

and the back:

here's what the page originally looked like:

these cards are:

280. 1976 topps burt hooton
281. 2005 topps jim tracy 2004 topps jim tracy
282. 2002 leaf rookies & stars mike piazza
283. 1996 pinnacle raul mondesi
284. 1983 donruss fernando valenzuela
285. 1978 topps steve yeager
286. 1958 topps gino cimoli
287. 2009 topps greg maddux
288. 1971 topps joe moeller

the "no brainer" of the day:

i needed to get at least one jim tracy card in the set, but the no brainer here is greg maddux's 2009 topps card - it's his final tribute, after all.

about the cards:

burt "happy" hooton's first topps card as a dodger gives some insight into how he got his nickname.  hey, throwing that knuckle-curve required serious thought!  both jim tracy's 2004 and 2005 topps cards are numbered 281, and i originally went with his 2005 "opera man" card instead of the 2004  one with glenn hoffman standing next to him.  this was a mistake since i didn't include any other card of hoffman in the set and i wanted to include every dodger manager from alston on (at least). not that hoffman gets credit for being in the set, but at least i know he's there behind tracy on this card.

next up are three cards featuring dodger rookies of the year - 1993 roy mike piazza on a 2002 leaf rookies & stars award winners subset card (this card recognizes the strongest man in socal for winning the 1996 all-star game mvp award), 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 pinnacle hardball heroes subset card that teases us with 30/30 talk on the back (mondy did go 30/30 in both 1997 and 1999 - the first dodger to do so), and 1981 nl roy fernando valenzuela on his 1983 donruss card.  looks like fernando is standing in front of the giant (world's largest, actually) green screen that exists at universal studious hollywood.

as much as i've stared at steve yeager's 1978 topps card over the years, i've never been able to figure out who it is standing behind him.  i think this was the first topps card that showed yeager in his awesome 1970's sunglasses.  bonus.

the bat has gone missing on gino cimoli's 1958 topps card, thanks to the cutting process used to get the photos on to the color block background.  at least that's my assumption.  it would be a weird pose to strike without a bat in hand.

the 2009 topps maddux card is marred a bit by the photoshopping, but it's still a nice card with a photo angle that isn't used too much. i like seeing all the red text on the back for his league leading stats, and i am happy that i made it out to the metrodome to see him pitch in 2002, even if he didn't have his best stuff that night.  it turned out to be the longest game i've ever attended - 15 innings.

just as gino cimoli's bat was missing on his card on this sheet, the ball is missing from joe moeller's hand on his 1971 topps card.  of course, the ball is just be a prop with this overused pose.  it's too bad that the photographers didn't seem to want to hang out and actually watch/photograph spring training games.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1990 leaf orel hershiser at number 280, 2004 topps jim tracy at number 281, 1999 fleer tradition eric young at number 282, 1990 upper deck mickey hatcher at number 283, 2012 topps tony gwynn jr.

at number 284, 2001 topps archives bill buckner

at number 285, 1970 topps jack jenkins/bill buckner

at number 286, 1994 score mike sharperson at number 287, and 1966 topps bill singer/don sutton at number 288.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1978 topps steve yeager card takes the title for this page. i remember hoping to pull one of these from a pack for my team set during a 7-11 run in the summer of 1978, and was not disappointed.  good times.

final thoughts:

baseball is a funny game.  raul mondesi played in over 1,500 regular season games in his career.  he also appeared in two postseasons with the dodgers - 1995 and 1996 - and one with the yankees - 2002.  in each of those appearances, his teams failed to make it out of the division series.  his son, also named raul mondesi, made his major league debut in last year's world series, and he still hasn't played in a regular season game.

frankendodger sheet 29 (cards 253-261) - lasorda goes for a jog...

here's sheet number 29 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 253-261:

and the back:

these cards are:

253. 1977 topps john hale
254. 1989 o-pee-chee mickey hatcher
255. 1979 topps tommy john
256. 2003 topps omar daal
257. 2008 topps update casey blake
258. 1958 topps carl erskine
259. 1978 topps dodger team
260. 1981 topps ron cey
261. 1992 topps tom lasorda

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are a few cards that could hold this distinction, but the 1992 lasorda was a bit more of a sure thing for this set than any of them.

about the cards:

there were times as a young collector that i doubted whether the john hale on that 1977 topps card was the same john hale on this 1978 topps card

the stats on the back told me they were the same person, but i was thrown by the mustache.  i also believed that the curl in superman's hair was enough of a disguise to convince people that he wasn't clark kent.

1989 o-pee-chee, which brings us the only non-topps card of the page, was a godsend for dodger fans who were ticked off at not having any postseason cards in the 1982 sets, and were worried that 1989 would go by without recognizing the impossible that happened in october of 1988.  fleer and o-pee-chee came through for us, and so mickey hatcher's heroics live on in cardboard form.

the 1979 topps tommy john card was his last card as a dodger, and i am grateful for it.  topps also made a card of john as a yankee for the 1979 burger king set, and o-pee-chee did their text and team variation magic as well.  john's departure gave rick sutcliffe a chance, so it wasn't all bad in 1979.  another lefty, omar daal was 6-3 in 99 games (all in relief) for the dodgers during his first run in dodger blue, despite an era over 5 and a whip of 1.71.  he returned for the 2002 season and was used primarily as a starter, going 11-9 with a 3.90 era and 1.21 whip in 39 games, 23 of which were starts.

i knew of casey blake from his two stints with the twins in the early 2000's, but sort of stopped paying attention once the twins fully committed to corey koskie at third and released blake.  he wound up playing for the indians for a few seasons before ned colletti sent carlos santana and jon meloan to cleveland for blake during the 2008 season. clearly not the biggest acquisition that season (hello, manny ramirez), but blake held down the hot corner for the two nlcs runs the dodgers made in that season and the next.

i thought about sending this extra 1958 carl erskine card off to oisk to be signed, but i am glad i did not so it can sit here in the frankenset. on april 18, 1958 erskine started and won the first ever regular season game that the dodgers played in los angeles so it's good to have his card from that year here to represent.

i have said many times over the course of my blogging that the 1978 topps set was the first set that i actively bought packs of, the first set that i collected and completed, and the set that i hold most dear.  the 1978 topps dodgers were the focus of many a post at garvey cey russell lopes. when i first found this checklist card in a pack, i had probably a third of the individual player cards, and i spent a lot of time looking at the players in the team photo figuring out who was who and why not everyone on the front was listed on the back.  one of my favorite cards, to be sure.

just like erskine's 1958 card being historically significant, any 1981 ron cey card immediately brings to my mind the 1981 world series and cey's game 3 heroics - his first inning home run and his eighth inning diving catch of bobby murcer's bunt attempt - that led to his winning a third of the world series mvp award. great memories for me.

finally, we have tommy lasorda's fantastic 1992 topps card.  lasorda is shown with gary carter, kevin gross, john candelaria, orel hershiser, and bobby ojeda out for a spring training jog.  little did tommy know that he was in for a historically bad season that year.  bonus for the larger photo of dodger stadium on the back, too!

cards that didn't make the cut:

i considered using the 1993 donruss triple play card that features todd worrell and tim wallach (and jody reed on the back)

at number 253, but i sent all of my dupes of that card to a certain lawyer in new mexico.  other cards that fell short of the frankenset include tom lasorda's 1989 topps card at number 254, dusty baker's 1980 topps card

at number 255, 1987 donruss opening day dodger logo/checklist at number 256, 1992 leaf todd benzinger at number 257, 2011 topps update andre ethier at number 258, 1995 topps stadium club tim wallach

at number 259, 1967 topps jim lefebvre at number 260, and 2013 panini hometown heroes yasiel puig at number 261.

my favorite card on the page:

as happy as i was to find out that o-pee-chee made cards for the 1988 world series, the 1978 topps dodger team card is too near and dear to my heart to not be my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

before justin turner came along, casey blake's beard was the best known dodger facial hair. mike over at the left field pavilion had some "in beard we trust" shirts made up that caught on a bit.  today, no one would even look twice at blake's beard as brian wilson begat sean doolittle, etc.

frankendodger sheet 3 (cards 19-27) - don, sandy, and the duke...

here's sheet number 3 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 19-27:

 and the back:

these cards are:

19. 2006 topps allen & ginter's nomar garciaparra
20. 2002 upper deck sp legendary cuts duke snider
21. 1986 fleer limited pedro guerrero
22. 1960 fleer joe medwick
23. 2013 bowman platinum clayton kershaw
24. 2016 panini diamond kings walter o'malley
25. 1958 topps don drysdale
26. 2007 upper deck masterpieces sandy koufax
27. 1977 topps bill buckner

the "no brainer" of the day:

as soon as i received a second 1960 fleer joe medwick card in the mail from a trader, i knew that it would be in the frankenset.  however, the no brainer of the day has to be the card at number 24.  i was all set with a 1989 topps woolworth's kirk gibson card at 24 until i saw the checklist for this year's panini diamond kings release.  i have long wanted a card of former dodger owner walter o'malley, and so he bumped gibby to the second page and jody reed out of the first 20 pages (at least).  without o'malley, i might be an angel fan.

about the cards:

you can't have big d debut in the set without sandy right next to him, so i was happy to see those two hall of famers fall out back-to-back.  as luck would have it, i had a double of drysdale's 1958 card to clinch the deal.

adding o'malley to the sheet puts the hall of famer count among these nine card subjects at 4, with a fifth quite likely at his current pace.  i am a bit embarrassed to say that i have not seen kershaw pitch in person yet, but i plan to rectify that this year or next at the latest.

finally, the 1977 topps bill buckner card is significant to me because i began watching baseball in 1977 when billy buck was on the cubs. the first card of his that i saw was his 1978 topps card, and so found out he had been a dodger by reading the stats on the back.  seeing his 1977 topps card for the first time was somewhat of a 'what might have been' moment for me as a kid.

you'll note that the orientation of the backs are all over the place.  it's not that big of a deal for the cards that feature a portrait photo on the front, but that landscape koufax causes problems.  i subscribe to the 1978 topps orientation for horizontal cards, and so the koufax goes in the binder that way.  unfortunately, upper deck thinks differently, and we wind up with upside down text on the back of the sheet.  oh well.

cards that didn't make the cut:

most of the cards that are on this page were sure things, so there wasn't much hemming and hawing about which cards to choose.  i would say that the eligible cards that came closest to upsetting the final roster were a 1986 topps woolworth's bill madlock card at number 19, tom goodwin's 1992 upper deck card at number 20, charlie hough's 1978 topps card at 22, the aforementioned gibson card at 24 (of course), and jackie robinson's 2000 upper deck legends card at 27.

my favorite card on the page:

as happy as i was to see the o'malley card, my favorite here is a toss up between the nomar and the koufax.  from a pure card standpoint, i'll go with sandy (really, that card is pretty much perfect), as my affection for the nomar card has more to do with the fact that it was one of his first to show him in dodger blue.

final thoughts:

i really like this page.