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 38 (cards 334-342) - first card, last card...

here's sheet number 38 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 334-342:

and the back:

these cards are:

334. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee russell martin
335. 1998 pacific crown collection otis nixon
336. 2004 topps eric gagne
337. 1986 donruss terry whitfield
338. 1982 topps davey lopes
339. 2003 upper deck vintage daryle ward
340. 2001 topps davey johnson
341. 1971 topps steve garvey
342. 1993 topps stadium club billy ashley

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose steve garvey's rookie card was always going to be number 341 in the set, but davey johnson's managerial card was also a sure thing. still, tough to be more of a no brainer than the '71 topps garvey.

about the cards:

i am pretty sure that the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set was supposed to use the 1977 topps/opc design.  the previews that they put out that year used the same design as what you see on the martin card above, but were referred to on checklists as "1977 o-pee-chee previews".  the backs sure looked like 1977 backs,

and you can see by the martin card that upper deck changed the backs before issuing the actual set.

otis nixon's 1998 pacific crown collection is a nice card - day game at dodger stadium is always a good choice for a card photo - and it reminds me of a story i heard a couple of weeks ago.  nixon played for the twins at one point in his career, and one of the local baseball scribes noted that in one of his first appearances for the team, the public address announcer called him amos otis by mistake. ok - the twins played the royals quite a bit back during the 14 years that amos otis was in the american league.  however, the announcer corrected himself by saying "i'm sorry - now batting, amos nixon".

next up is a 2004 topps card marking eric gagne's consecutive saves streak a 'season highlight'. i used to get a bick kick out of seeing dodgers on league leader and record breaker/highlight cards (i felt like it was a long time between when i started collecting in 1978 and manny mota's 1980 record breaker card), but now it's not quite as exciting for some reason.

terry whitfield was a giant when i started collecting in '78, but i do have one of his non-dodger cards in my dodger sets.  he was a yankee on the same 1976 topps rookie card that featured henry cruz.  anyway, whitfield was released by the dodgers early in the 1986 season - not too long after i found this card in a pack as i recall.

dave lopes was traded by the dodgers following the 1981 season, so i know he was gone by the time i found his 1982 topps all-star card in a pack.  still, it's one of his two dodger cards in the set, and one of his last dodger cards, period.  i did like steve sax, but i didn't like that he replaced dave lopes.  no cards of coaches over the last few seasons means that we likely lost the last opportunity for a current dodger card of lopes.  he's now the first base coach for his former dodger teammate dusty baker in washington dc.

daryle ward shows up on a card from upper deck's 2003 vintage release.  this was the second series or something, and didn't use the 1965 design that got me collecting the set in the first place.  i was confused when i saw these cards, to be honest.  i thought that maybe topps put a kabosh on the use of their designs, but then in 2008, upper deck had those 1969 style inserts and so i was really interested and then confused by the 2009 1977 previews.  i didn't think much about ward because he didn't do much as a dodger.

i was happy to see manager cards back in topps sets in 2001, especially since the dodgers had a new manager since the last time topps made cards for the skippers.  they had gone through a couple, in fact.  johnson was replaced by jim tracy following a 2nd place finish in the nl west in 2000, but at least we have this card to remember him by.

we saw one of the last dodger cards of an infielder earlier, and now we have the first of another.  steve garvey's 1971 topps rookie card was a jewel of my early collection.  it was pretty tough to find growing up in southern california, especially in my price range.  it is weird still to see him with a fielder's glove as opposed to a first baseman's mitt, and that black batting glove is so chic.

finally we have a 1993 stadium club card of billy ashley.  i honestly thought this was an eric karros card when i started writing this post.  it's a reasonable mistake, however, as ashley has the same sort of running hunch that karros displayed.

cards that didn't make the cut:

it was going to be tough to displace many of these cards no matter what other options existed, but some of the cards that weren't chosen include 1982 o-pee-chee fernando valenzuela at number 334, 2002 upper deck dave hansen at number 335, 1994 upper deck jim gott

at number 336, 1984 donruss joe beckwith at number 337, 1990 upper deck alfredo griffin

at number 338, 1994 pinnacle roger mcdowell at number 339, 1989 topps kirk gibson at number 340, 1970 topps bill sudakis

at number 341, and 2002 upper deck victory cesar izturis at number 342.

my favorite card on the page:

i really do like that topps captured the fist move that gagne demonstrated after each save, but there's no way that my favorite card on the page isn't going to be steve garvey's rookie card.

final thoughts:

i saw gagne pitch in person in 2002 and 2004, but not in 2003 at the height of "game over". in 2004, i was at a game at fenway where he was brought into a game in a non-save situation and struck out the side in order (david ortiz took strike 3 to end the game). not quite the same electricity that was to be experienced at dodger stadium, to be sure.  anyway, kenley jansen just passed gagne on the franchise's all-time saves leader board.  it's no surprise as the closer position has become so specialized, but for a long time, jim brewer was at the top of that list.  he was ultimately passed by todd worrell, who was passed by his replacement jeff shaw, who was passed by his replacement in eric gagne.

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 26 (cards 226-234) - getting carried away with russell...

here's sheet number 26 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 226-234:

and the back:

these cards are:

226. 1971 topps bill russell
227. 2007 upper deck first edition wilson betemit
228. 1979 topps vic davalillo
229. 1991 leaf jim gott
230. 2006 topps heritage jason phillips
231. 1964 topps dick calmus
232. 2010 topps national chicle roy campanella
233. 1992 topps mitch webster
234. 1960 topps don demeter

the "no brainer" of the day:

once i knew which cards were available to me for this sheet, bill russell's second year card was a lock for the first spot.

about the cards:

now bill russell is on a streak of consecutive sheets.  this page features his second year card with a photo from spring training in 1969.  we know this by the colorful holman stadium seats and the mlb anniversary patch on his sleeve, although it is conceivable that the photo is from 1970 if the dodgers re-used their uniforms during spring training as they did in back in 1938.  wilson betemit makes his frankenset debut with his 2007 first edition card. betemit spent about a year with the dodgers, coming at the trade deadline in 2006 and leaving at the trade deadline in 2008.

vic davalillo was plucked by the dodgers from the mexican league in 1977 after a two-year absence from the majors.  he paid dividends as a pinch-hitter with a two-out bunt to start the game winning rally in the 9th inning of game 3 of the 1977 nlcs against the phillies.  his 1979 card is his last card from topps, even though he played for the dodgers into the 1980 season.

jim gott was a pretty good reliever for the dodgers, especially if you ignore his final season with the club (1994). from 1990-1993, gott had an era of 2.36 in 235 games. opponents hit just .237 with an ops of .637 against him in that span, and he allowed just 31% of his inherited runners to score.  however, as his 1991 leaf card shows, he's still wearing bobby welch's number as far as i am concerned.

jason phillips was one of jim tracy's legion of ja(y)sons - phillips, werth, grabowski, and repko - that received a fair amount of playing time in their 91 loss 2005 season.  phillips was with the blue jays and tracy was out of a job by the time his 2006 heritage card was issued.  i still do not know what is going on in the background of dick calmus's 1964 topps card, but i am obligated to tell you, in light of recent events, that calmus was younger than julio urias when he started a game for the dodgers in 1963.

horizontal campanella from the 2010 national chicle set is a nice card with the brooklyn bridge in the background.  the card almost makes me forget that we have seen that campy swing image on so many cards from topps.  mitch webster is wearing don sutton's jersey on his 1992 topps card, which is not a bad card, nor is it a bad thing that the dodgers were allowing others to wear sutton's number up until his election to the hall of fame. what doesn't make sense (to me) is jason grabowski wearing steve garvey's number (no offense meant, jason) or no one wearing fernando's number 34, but not officially retiring it.

finally, we have don demeter for whom topps finally used a new photo instead of recycling the one they used in 1958

and 1959 (not pictured, but you get the idea).

cards that didn't make the cut:

i could have used, but i chose not to use the following cards (among others) on this sheet: 1984 donruss dusty baker at number 226, 1990 score jay howell at number 227, 1978 topps manny mota

at number 228, 1996 pinnacle raul mondesi at number 229, 1977 o-pee-chee rick monday

at number 230, 1981 topps joe beckwith at number 231, 1989 topps ricky horton featuring a similar, but better shot than ramon martinez's card that was on yesterday's sheet

at number 232, 1998 fleer ultra paul konerko at number 233, and 1988 donruss baseball's best jesse orosco at number 234.

my favorite card on the page:

today it's between russell and campanella.  i'll go with campy today because i feel a bit more artsy. had the rick monday opc card made the sheet (meaning, if i had a third copy of it), it would have been my favorite in a runaway.

final thoughts:

i think topps whiffed on 2006 heritage. the colors seem to be too washed out compared to many from the original 1957 set.  they did pretty well with 2009 heritage, as the cards look a lot like the demeter above.  it's too bad that they used so many pictures from holman stadium for the dodgers, though.

frankendodger sheet 23 (cards 199-207) - all decades reporting for duty...

here's sheet number 23 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 199-207:

and the back:

these cards are:

199. 1977 o-pee-chee ron cey
200. 1964 topps sandy koufax
201. 1982 donruss steve yeager
202. 2014 topps chrome matt kemp
203. 1990 donruss jay howell
204. 2001 topps archives tom lasorda
205. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams steve garvey
206. 1959 topps carl furillo
207. 1971 topps alan foster

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 2001 archives lasorda card.  his 1988 topps card is one of my top 3 favorite lasorda cards (along with 1992 topps and 1978 topps), but it didn't make the cut earlier in the set.  so, the archives card that reprints the '88 card was a no brainer once the no repeat players/sets guideline expired.

about the cards:

i'm pretty sure that this is the first sheet that includes cards from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and 10's.  and they are all pretty good, too.  leading off with ron cey's 1977 opc card, and following that up with sandy koufax's 1964 topps card? that's a great start.  i thought that the hero numbers should be well represented in this set, and although clayton kershaw's 2013 topps heritage card was also number 200, i decided to go with the original, so to speak. so, i purchased a second '64 koufax for my collection.  and, while i may go back and replace matt kemp at number 100 with hubie brooks (i've got that bowman card in my sportlots cart as i type), sandy won't be going anywhere.

i could have used either a 1982 donruss or 1983 donruss yeager card

at 201, and i went for yeager at the plate rather than yeager behind it.  the photo is similar to the one on cey's card - so much so that i wonder if the top of the dugout was painted sometime between 1976 and 1981, so that both photos were taken in the same (shea?) stadium.  matt kemp's 2014 topps chrome card features a nice photo with the red number prominently displayed, but it's jay howell's 1990 donruss card that really makes the red pop.

i already mentioned that i like tommy's card, so i'll move on to the garvey from the timeless teams set.  i am a fan of this set to be sure, and this is one of my favorite cards in it because upper deck matched the photo with the year, which is nice.  from one number 6 to another, and from dodger stadium to the la coliseum, we have carl furillo's 1959 topps card. i've seen a few football games at the coliseum, but did not make it to the exhibition game the dodgers played there a few years ago.  i do recall sitting there during the football games trying to imagine it as a baseball stadium and couldn't really figure it out even though i had seen photos of the conversion.  anyway, the rams will be playing there for a couple of years, and i kind of hope the stadium falls apart on them.  this coming from a guy who was a big fan of the rams until they traded vince ferragamo to the bills in '85.  i thought georgia frontiere was a bad owner. that kroenke guy seems like a real jackass.

apologies to alan foster for bringing up kroenke just before getting to his card.  one thing about foster that i find interesting is that he wore number 44 - a number usually identified with sluggers like hank aaron, willie mccovey, and post-oakland reggie jackson.  speaking of sluggers, foster served up the first pitch that willie stargell hit out of dodger stadium (stargell did it twice), although pops wore number 8.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i considered but did not choose a number of cards for this sheet, including 2002 topps 206 paul loduca at number 199, 2013 topps heritage clayton kershaw at number 200, the aforementioned 1983 donruss steve yeager at number 201, 1979 o-pee-chee gary thomasson

at number 202, 1983 fleer greg brock at number 203, 1970 topps len gabrielson at number 204, 2003 topps traded adam riggs

at number 205, 1983 fleer steve garvey

(proving that garvey cards don't always win) at number 206, and 1986 topps fernando valenzuela record breaker at number 207.

my favorite card on the page:

there are a lot of contenders here, but a 1964 topps sandy koufax card - more for the stature than the aesthetic - should and does win out.

final thoughts:

back to the uniform number thing - foster was traded to cleveland after the 1970 season, and he took number 32 (now that is a pitcher's number) with the tribe. the dodgers acquired al downing that same offseason, and he (another pitcher) took foster's 44.  about three years later, downing gave up aaron's 715th career home run - from one 44 to another...

frankendodger sheet 21 (cards 181-189) - a hero for all-time...

here's sheet number 21 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 181-189:

and the back:

these cards are:

181. 2014 bowman chrome dan haren
182. 1991 donruss studio gary carter
183. 2012 bowman james loney
184. 2001 bowman's best joe thurston
185. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes steve garvey
186. 1986 leaf tom niedenfuer
187. 2002 fleer platinum jeff shaw
188. 1971 topps bob valentine/mike strahler
189. 2004 upper deck dave roberts

the "no brainer" of the day:

of all of these cards, the 1971 topps valentine/strahler card was the one that slotted in on this page first.  maybe not a true no brainer, but everything else here fit in around it. still, it was enough of a no brainer to block a different jeff shaw card from the set - more on that below.

about the cards:

three bowman cards and a studio card start the sheet off.  i wonder what drives the decision for card manufacturers to use either the interlocking 'la' logo versus the flying ball logo.  anyway, i don't care for the logo placement on haren's card, and if you were to remove the logo from carter's studio card, you would see that it is a card that panini could (and does) make today.

loney and thurston strike similar poses, while upper deck gave me a new steve garvey card in 1994 using a photo from the 1974 world series.  i was pretty happy when i found out about this set, which happened later in the decade. i am glad that the inset photo they used was also a dodger photo instead of a padre photo - upper deck pulled that kind of swap on a few cards, such as manny mota's and charlie neal's.

being a leaf card rather than a donruss card doesn't make tom niedenfuer's card any more interesting.  i will once again take a moment to tell the tale of perhaps my favorite letter to the editor ever.  it must have been in 1985 when some fine person wrote a poem to the la times' sports editor that went something like this:  "i am a true blue dodger fan, so i won't be naming names. but there is a certain pitcher, we niedenfuer games." genius.

jeff shaw's 2002 fleer platinum card is obviously from a 'heritage' type set that honors the 1987 fleer design.  not sure why fleer put the orange bar on the bottom (dodger cards in 1987 had a darker blue bar).  the orange makes it look like a padre card.  next up is the first multi-player rookie card in the set. both strahler and valentine would be sent to the angels with frank robinson a couple years after this card came out.

last, but not least, is a card of the current dodger manager, dave roberts. i am not a fan of the blue jerseys as game jerseys (even though i own one), but i do like roberts' card.  also, from 2002-2005, i was only buying topps stuff, so upper deck cards from that timeframe are relatively new and interesting to me.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards considered but not chosen for this sheet include 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee cory wade at number 181, 1971 o-pee-chee al downing

at number 182, 1998 bowman ted lilly at number 183, 2003 (or 2004) upper deck shawn green

at number 184, 1996 upper deck collector's choice mike piazza at number 185, 1996 sp hideo nomo at number 186, 2003 (or 2004) upper deck andy ashby at number 187, 1999 fleer ultra jeff shaw

at number 188 (that is a great card, but the valentine/strahler card held its own), 2003 upper deck dave roberts at number 189 (yes, roberts, green, and ashby all held the same numbers in two consecutive upper deck flagship sets).

my favorite card on the page:

just to be a bit unpredictable, i won't choose the garvey card (it's nice, but fairly dark). the thurston is a cool looking card, but my favorite here is the dave roberts card.  i chose his 2004 card over his 2003 card for this spot because of its blue-ness despite my aversion to the blue jerseys as mentioned above.

final thoughts:

chances were pretty good that i was going to have to repeat a set or player at 185, so i figured it might as well be my baseball hero, steve garvey, who had the honors.  i could have gone with a 2015 bowman chrome mini erisbel arruebarrena card there, but i didn't have a double, and limiting the card selection for the first 20 pages seemed like a nice number to stop on.