frankendodger sheet 69 (cards 613-621) - bat flip!...

here's sheet number 69 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 613-621:

and the back:

these cards are:

613. 2015 topps josh beckett
614. 2003 topps kevin brown
615. 1969 topps len gabrielson
616. 1994 donruss dave hansen
617. 1986 donruss bill madlock
618. 1994 score raul mondesi
619. 1992 pinnacle brett butler
620. 1977 topps don sutton
621. 1975 sspc mickey vernon

the "no brainer" of the day:

given the lack of manager cards in topps' flagship series, the beckett card featuring don mattingly was an easy choice for the set.

about the cards:

josh beckett's 2015 stadium club card features the better photo, but i still like his flagship series 2 card for the mattingly appearance and for the fact that topps recognized beckett's no-hitter even though it came in his final season and he didn't get a regular final tribute card in the set (this card is a checklist).

the 2003 topps kevin brown card doesn't use the typical side view of a pitcher in their delivery, but the best part about this card (aside from the blue border that made 2003 topps a great set for dodger fans) is the inset photo of brown with a batting helmet on.  i was never kevin brown's biggest fan, but i did watch him warm up in the bullpen a few times, and also saw him throw on the side before a couple of games, and i will not forget the sound of the ball hitting the catchers' mitt. dude threw hard.

len gabrielson brings us the last 1960's card of the set. his 1969 topps card notes that he led the dodgers with 10 home runs in 1968. those 10 homers were a career high for gabrielson, who followed up that performance with just one home run in 1969.

dave hansen's 1994 donruss card actually shows him in the field, which is nice. hansen had played 108 games at third in 1992, but that number was down to just 18 in 1993 and then just 7 in 1994 as his career as a pinch-hitting specialist took off.

the best thing about bill madlock's 1986 donruss card is pinky tuscadero in the background above the dodger logo. i have no idea who that really is or what they are doing on the field.

1994 score gave us this raul mondesi card with the disgusted bat flip. i am guessing that the umpire who made the bad third strike call is either joe west, angel hernandez, or eric gregg.

the 1992 pinnacle brett butler card is pretty cool in that it dissects the bunt process. i know of a few major leaguers that could use a bunting tutorial, with byron buxton being at the top of the list.

don sutton is not suttoning on his 1977 topps card, but that's ok.  instead, he's striking the go-to full windup, hands behind head pose.

last card is the 1975 sspc mickey vernon card. vernon never played for the dodgers, but he was on walt alston's coaching staff as the team's hitting coach in 1975. vernon had begun his coaching career with the pirates in 1960 (he was their first base coach), but was activated in september of that year as the pirates were headed to a pennant and world series championship - vernon was manny mota before manny mota!

cards that didn't make the cut:

bill madlock at number 617 may be the only non-target set option at number 617, but i had these cards to consider at the other spots: 1990 score jose vizcaino at number 613, 1991 bowman eddie murray at number 614, 2013 topps mark ellis

at number 615, 1972 topps joe ferguson

at number 616, 1993 bowman raul mondesi at number 618, 2008 topps heritage blake dewitt at number 619, 1974 topps al downing at number 620, and 1973 topps joe ferguson

at number 621,

my favorite card on the page:

if you've been following along with this blog, you probably know that a coach card is going to beat out most others.  i like the beckett and the butler and the mondesi, but the vernon card is my favorite of the bunch.

final thoughts:

i know that the 1975 sspc set is really a 1976 set (kind of like 2012 panini prizm which came out in 2013). i refer to it as 1975 because of the copyright date, but i think most call it 1976 because of the release date (which was delayed due to legal issues if i recall correctly).

frankendodger sheet 53 (cards 469-477) - no piazzas, but two piazzas...

here's sheet number 53 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 469-477:

and the back:

these cards are:

469. 1992 fleer juan samuel
470. 1985 donruss sid bream
471. 1969 topps ted savage
472. 1995 score rafael bournigal
473. 1975 topps ken mcmullen
474. 1995 donruss todd worrell
475. 1987 donruss bob welch
476. 1991 leaf bob ojeda
477. 1982 topps steve yeager

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the closest thing to a no brainer would be the only topps dodger card of ted savage? otherwise, nothing really rises to the occasion here.

about the cards:

juan samuel, seen here on one of his last dodger cards (a 1992 fleer card) gave the dodgers a couple of decent years at second base, but failed to stop the turnstile at the position (he was released during the 1992 season) that began when steve sax left after the 1988 season. since then, the dodgers have had 17 different second basemen start on opening day- one more than the number of different opening day third basemen over the same span.

sid bream did not get a rated rookie card in the 1985 donruss set (tony brewer was the dodgers' rated rookie that year), as evidenced by the lack of the famous logo on his card above, but his cards were in high demand among young southern california collectors nonetheless.  i think that had a lot to do with how disappointed we were with greg brock. bream was traded to the pirates later in the '85 season for bill madlock.

now we are to the ted savage card from 1969 topps.  the card lists savage as a dodger (he had joined the club in april of '68 - thank goodness for cards issued in series rather than all at once), but uses a photo from his time with the pirates, which ended in 1964. in fact, this photo looks like it came from the same session as his 1967 card photo. that card lists him as a cub, but he is clearly wearing a pirates jersey.  i'm not complaining, mind you, as i appreciate topps at least getting the team name right on a midseason acquisition.

rafael bournigal didn't play a single game in the majors during the 1995 season, but he did get a few cards, including this one from score showing him and mike piazza sharing a post game high-five.  bournigal started the '95 season at albuquerque, but was traded to the expos in june and spent the rest of the season in their minor league system.  it was really weird to find out that, despite that trade, topps used him in their pre-production 1996 set.

i like to think that if things had aligned better, bournigal's nickname would have been 'jason' (no, i am not getting paid for that movie plug).

the 1975 topps ken mcmullen card is one of my least favorite dodger cards from the set due to the unsightly (in my opinion) color combination topps used. i could never be a cleveland browns fan, i guess.

next up is another card from 1995 featuring the dodger catcher and some postgame congrats. this time, it's closer todd worrell and his donruss card that makes way for the strongest man in socal to join him.  i don't know if this was a ploy by card companies, but i have seen quite a number of double play cards where the player sliding in (who is not the card subject) is a player of note.  as a now limited player collector, i don't mind.  if i still had a separate mike piazza player collection, things like this could get out of hand pretty quickly, as i include lurker and/or cameos in my pc's.

i do have a second copy of the 1987 donruss bob welch card in my dodger stadium binder, but i don't keep a second copy of the 1991 leaf bob ojeda card with my lurker mini-collection. that's because the lurker is a fellow dodger, and also because it's probably just alfredo griffin.  no offense, alfredo.

the final card of the page is a 1982 topps steve yeager card. i was hoping for some world series action on yeager's card (or any of the dodgers, frankly), but was disappointed.  it's just another shea stadium batter's box photo.

cards that didn't make the cut:

those cards not selected include 1993 topps dave hansen at number 469, 1988 score orel hershiser at number 470, 2007 topps heritage andre ethier at number 471, 1968 topps walter alston

at number 472, 2011 topps chad billingsley

at number 473, 1996 donruss karim garcia at number 474, 1988 donruss dave anderson at number 475, 1994 score mike piazza at number 476, and 1984 topps rafael landestoy

at number 477.

my favorite card on the page:

i like the bournigal card a wee bit more than the worrell card due to the high-five as opposed to the arm-wrestle handshake.

final thoughts:

looking at these cards, i am reminded that topps did not always put their logo on the front of their cards. take a look at the 1969 and 1975 cards, neither of which have the logo. the '69 has the logo on the back, but the '75 doesn't even have that.  contrast that with fleer, score, and leaf - and then there is donruss, who not only put their logo on the front, but also the year of the card (at least prior to 1995).  that was some revolutionary stuff back in 1981

when they began the trend.

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 43 (cards 379-387) - maury and manny side by side opens my eyes...

here's sheet number 43 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 379-387:

and the back:

these cards are:

379. 1969 topps ken boyer
380. 2007 topps jason schmidt
381. 2006 topps odalis perez
382. 2001 topps kirk gibson
383. 1996 pinnacle wilton guerrero
384. 2014 topps heritage andre ethier
385. 1971 topps maury wills
386. 1977 topps manny mota
387. 1959 topps don drysdale

the "no brainer" of the day:

ken boyer's 1969 topps card is the only one (if you don't count the o-pee-chee version which has the same number so the question is moot) of him from his active career as a dodger. it was going to be in the set.

about the cards:

that boyer card confused me quite a bit when it first found its way into my collection. the back is different from most other 1969 topps cards,

and certainly any other one that i had seen at that point. there is no topps logo or cartoon, and the text box doesn't include his name and height/weight etc, but rather his factoid. it still seems like a bit of an anomaly now, but at least i know that others like it exist, such as mickey mantle's final tribute.

anyway, boyer was a former nl mvp who joined the dodgers for the last two seasons of his career (1968 and 1969). he did not appear in the 1970 topps set, which is unfortunate.

i  bought a lot of 2007 topps, and it was the first set i put together by hand in a few years. i didn't care for it too much, but i put a want list up shortly after starting to blog, and several folks helped out.  i still bought a factory set as i had done since the mid 1990's.  anyway, jason schmidt is repping the set here, and he had some pretty good years with the giants before joining the dodgers for the 2007 season.  unfortunately, he was unable to stay healthy and only pitched in a handful of games for the dodgers in 2007 and 2009 combined (he missed all of 2008 due to injury). when he did pitch, he did much better on the road than in dodger stadium - he was 0-4 with an era of 10.83 in his four starts at chavez ravine in 2007 and 1-0 with an era of 0.82 in his two starts on the road that year. in 2009, the trend continued as he was 1-2 with an era of 8.49 in his three home starts and 1-0 with a 0.00 era in his lone road start that year.

2006 topps makes its first appearance in the frankenset today, thanks to odalis perez. perez was my last hope for the dodgers to see some return on the gary sheffield trade.  i was quite disappointed when fox traded mike piazza to the marlins, but they did get sheffield in return who put up some of the best offensive seasons the dodgers had ever seen.  the other parts of that trade (bobby bonilla, charles johnson, jim eisenreich) dead-ended, and perez was part of the package (along with brian jordan) that the dodgers when sheffield was dealt to the braves.  jordan left via free agency, and after a couple of decent seasons from perez that got my hopes up, he had some mediocre campaigns and the dodgers sent him to the royals for elmer dessens during the 2006 season.  still, i have a soft spot for perez because he gave me a ball at angel stadium on june 30, 2006 - about a month before he was traded.

i was happy to see that topps considered kirk gibson's 1988 world series home run to be a 'golden moment' for their 2001 subset along with hank aaron's 715th career home run, bill mazeroski's world series winning home run, and kerry wood's 20 strikeout game, among other events.  i was even more pleased to see topps finally recognize nomar's home run

in the 4+1 game this year.

there is a well known saying regarding player development in the dominican republic that "you don't walk your way off the island", and wilton guerrero is an example of that philosophy.  he had a bunch of rookie cards in 1996, including this 1996 pinnacle card, as he was in line with a wave of young talent that the dodgers debuted in the '90s, kind of similar to what we are seeing from the cubs today. guerrero had only a few at bats with the dodgers in 1996, but spent most of 1997 with the big club and hit .291 that year.  unfortunately, he walked only 8 times so his obp was just .305.  even his brother, vladimir (a notorious hacker), took a walk more often.  he was traded to the expos during the following season.

next we have andre ethier's 2014 topps heritage card. i read over the weekend that ethier's return to the dodgers is not certain for this season.  that is too bad on a couple of opposing fronts.  first, he is now a 10 and 5 player, and the dodgers have literally nothing to show for not trading him prior to his gaining that status this past off season. second, we have not been able to see ethier build on his comeback season last year. i am more disappointed in the latter.

the next two cards are somewhat tied together. i'll explain a bit more in the "final thoughts" below, but maury wills (shown on his 1971 topps card) and manny mota (shown on his 1977 topps card) were traded together by the expos to the dodgers in 1969.  it was wills' second time around with the team and he played well enough to reclaim the shortstop position for a couple of seasons.  in 1971, in fact, he finished 6th in the league mvp voting, right behind roberto clemente.  mota, on the other hand, was the dodgers' primary left fielder in 1970 (and an all-star in 1973), but gradually saw his playing time decrease to the point of him being a pinch-hitting specialist by the time this card was issued.  it's worth noting that mota is striking a very similar pose to wills on his card, and the photo might even be from the same stadium.

speaking of stadiums, the 1959 topps don drysdale card features a photo from inside the la memorial coliseum which was the home of the dodgers for four years before dodger stadium opened.  the back of the card notes that his nickname is 'airedale' but i only ever heard him referred to as 'big d'.  of course, he was finished pitching by the time i was born.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some other options that i considered but did not choose for this page include 1998 fleer tradition todd hollandsworth

at number 379, 1989 o-pee-chee orel hershiser (world series) at number 380, 1967 topps dick schofield

at number 381, 1994 topps mitch webster at number 382, 1963 topps pete richert at number 383, 1993 score select lenny harris

at number 384, 1993 upper deck eric karros at number 385, 1976 topps ed goodson at number 386, and 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary retrospective pedro martinez at number 387.

my favorite card on the page:

i think the scuffed up drysdale wins over the '77 mota.  i do like the 2001 gibson, but there are other cards depicting the impossible that i like better, such as the 1995 upper deck sp championship series card

even if it is the same photo.

final thoughts:

i don't think that i ever gave it much thought before, but seeing the 1971 topps card next to the 1977 topps card, i am made aware of how similar the designs are.  turn the black border to white, italicize the team name, capitalize the player name and position, but those are minor tweaks. the biggest change, of course, is the position in the pennant on the '77 card and i suppose that is why i never thought much about the similarities between the two.

i have considered the 1974 and 1980 designs as very similar, as well as the 1975 and 1986 (just without all of the different colors) designs (and the 1962 and 1987 sets are the most obvious), but i never associated the 1971 and 1977 sets this way.

frankendodger sheet 37 (cards 325-333) - now with more unibrow...

here's sheet number 37 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 325-333:

and the back:

these cards are:

325. 1961 topps wally moon
326. 2009 topps manny ramirez
327. 1969 topps willie crawford
328. 1996 upper deck collector's choice raul mondesi
329. 2011 topps update dee gordon
330. 1975 topps mike marshall
331. 2003 fleer tradition kevin brown
332. 2002 upper deck tom goodwin
333. 2003 topps shawn green

the "no brainer" of the day:

even if he is holding on to the ball, the 2011 topps update dee gordon card is fantastic, and it was going to be in this frankenset.

about the cards:

my blogging sense tells me that the wally moon card is the first 1961 topps card to make the frankenset which is surprising.  i had moon at number 5 in the set with his 1960 topps card before ultimately settling on a 1957 topps sal maglie instead.  both cards give us a good look at the trademark wally moon unibrow, but the 1961 card is, in my opinion, better.

the manny ramirez card here is a postseason highlights card that tells the tale of manny's 1.100 slugging percentage and 2 home runs hit against the cubs in the 2008 nlds.  manny also hit 2 home runs and slugged 1.067 against the phillies in the nlcs, but the dodgers came up short in that series.  manny didn't get to play in a world series with the dodgers, but he did appear in four fall classics - two with the indians and two with the red sox - and hit .243 in those series.  willie crawford's 1969 topps card tells us on the back that willie owned a .500 batting average in the world series at the time of the card's release.  of course, willie had appeared in only one world series at that time (1965), and was 1 for 2 in his plate appearances.  crawford did appear in the 1974 world series with the dodgers and hit .333 with a home run to drop his career fall classic average to .375.

like manny ramirez, raul mondesi hails from the domincan republic, although manny went to high school in new york.  mondesi's collector's choice card here mentions another caribbean ballplayer, roberto clemente, and notes that rauuuuuul was the first dodger to go 20/20 (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season) since kirk gibson in 1988.  in 1997, mondesi would become the first dodger to join the 30/30 club.

remember when dee gordon was a shortstop? he came up to the dodgers in 2011 and hit .304 and stole 24 bases in 56 games and we got this great card from topps as part of their update set. it's a nice example of the shortstop avoiding a slide as part of a potential double play turn, even though gordon didn't throw the ball to first.  i still include it in my dp collection, and went after the various parallels of this card in earnest.

dr. mike marshall's 1975 topps card was an important one to me as i was completing my dodger team sets in the early 1980's.  it was his first card as a dodger in the sense that he was wearing a dodger uniform (unlike his 1974 topps traded card), and it listed his stats on the back with his all important 106 games pitched in 1974. marshall was featured on two other cards in the 1975 topps set - a record breaker and a league leader - but this card was the one i was most intent on acquiring as soon as i learned that a dodger held the record for most games pitched by a reliever in a single season.

vintage card designs were abundant in 2003 with topps heritage, upper deck vintage, and fleer tradition.  at least fleer used one of their designs (1963 fleer) instead of pulling an upper deck and ripping off the 1965 topps design.  anyway, this particular kevin brown card features a peek at the dodger stadium outfield wall with the 40th anniversary of dodger stadium murals.  i loved the murals.

tom goodwin's 2002 upper deck card may be the least interesting card on the page, but at least that is tom goodwin on the card and not adrian beltre.  shawn green's 2003 topps card here is a season highlights card that addresses his week in may of 2002 when he hit 9 home runs over 7 games.  in the midst of that run was a four-homer game in which he had 2 other hits (a single and a double) for 19 total bases - a major league record.  i've written a few times about the fact that i was there for green's four-homer game, so topps should know that it wasn't just brewer fans that were giving green a standing o after he hit his fourth home run.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were still many options for these spots in the frankenset, and some of the runners-up include 1993 score select pedro astacio at number 325, 1993 donruss pedro martinez at number 326, 1982 donruss davey lopes

at number 327, 1998 pacific crown collection greg gagne at number 328, 1976 topps joe ferguson at number 329, 2013 topps update yasiel puig

at number 330, 2014 topps yasiel puig

at number 331, 1989 score mickey hatcher at number 332, and 1998 topps raul mondesi at number 333.

my favorite card on the page:

i would like the shawn green card more if it were specifically about the 4-home run game, so i'll stick with dee gordon as my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

i was also at the dodger/brewer game the night before green's four-homer game.  it was green's rbi triple in the third inning that produced that game's only run.  hideo nomo pitched well, and eric gagne closed things out on a throwback uniform night in which the brewers wore them but the dodgers did not.  i'm guessing that's because their road unis in 2002 were pretty close to what they wore in the early 1960's design wise, as you can tell by comparing the goodwin and moon cards above.