frankendodger sheet 64 (cards 568-576) - 1990 target to the rescue...

here's sheet number 64 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 568-576:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 572 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number64; front and back]

these cards are:

568. 1993 upper deck jody reed
569. 1973 topps walt alston and coaches
570. 1960 topps don drysdale
571. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert
572. 1990 target don newcombe 2022 topps max muncy
573. 1994 topps steve wilson
574. 2009 topps heritage national convention roy campanella
575. 1974 topps steve garvey
576. 1999 fleer tradition adrian beltre

the "no brainer" of the day:

there was literally no other option for number 572, but steve garvey's 1974 topps card was almost as certain to be in this set as his 1978 topps card.

about the cards:

jody reed spent just the 1993 season with the dodgers, and upper deck got him in the latter part of the set in dodger blue.  reed did ok at the plate, and he was pretty good in the field (i think he set a team record for fewest errors by a second baseman - insert steve sax joke here), but he chose to turn down the team's 3-year offer of over $7 million.  reed wound up making just $350,000 with the brewers in 1994 and fred claire tried to put an end to the revolving door at second base by acquiring delino deshields from the expos in exchange for pedro martinez.

1973 was tom lasorda's first year on manager walt alston's coaching staff (he replaced danny ozark who was hired to manage the phillies), and topps was able to get him on alston's card, perhaps only because this card was featured in one of the later series.  tommy, along with red adams, monty basgall, and jim gilliam, remained on alston's staff until smokey retired with a couple of games left in the 1976 season.  that's when tommy took over and kept the coaching staff intact, adding preston gomez to replace him as the third base coach.

more vintage don drysdale in the set, this time with his 1960 topps all-star card.  perhaps the best thing about this card is the cartoon on the back that actually uses the word 'moider' in full on cartoon tough guy-ese.  moider is actually a word all on its own, meaning to bother, but that's not what topps meant.

here's upper deck's o-pee-chee set from 2009 again, represented by scott elbert.  there is nothing o-pee-chee about this set, and when they changed the design to not resemble the 1977 cards they should have also changed the name of the set.  the only o-pee-chee thing about the release was the 1971 buybacks and one of the insert sets that used an old hockey set design.

and so it has finally come to this - i had to use a card from the 1990 target set to fill a spot on the sheet.  i'm glad that it's don newcombe breaking the seal on that set, and also glad that number 572 is not one of the numbers that was skipped in the set. max muncy fills the first spot that had been taken by the 1990 target set with his 2022 flagship card. the 2022 design is forgetful in my opinion, but i am happy to have a standard sized card here.

steve wilson is back, just a few pages after we saw his 1994 fleer card. this 1994 topps card shows the lefty in dodger stadium, so it is automatically better than that fleer card in my opinion.

the next card is somewhat of an oddball, which is rare for such a high numbered card.  it's a card produced by topps under their heritage brand for the 2009 national convention featuring roy campanella.  i find the card interesting because in 2009, topps heritage was using the 1960 design, and this is clearly a 1959 style card.  also interesting is that campy already had a card in the 1959 topps set (his symbol of courage card), and if topps wanted to make a campy card that should have been, they should have made a 1958 style card for his final tribute.  the card starts to make sense when you see that the text at the bottom notes that campy was named an honorary coach in january of 1959, but by then the dodgers were in los angeles, so why the brooklyn cap and brooklyn dodger team affiliation?  weird, but i like having it here in the frankenset.

i will try not to ramble on too much about steve garvey's 1974 topps card, but it is my second favorite garvey card just behind his 1978 topps card.

and, thanks to topps' throwback thursday sets, i will very soon have in my possession a card that features both the 1974 and 1978 cards.

this card is from last week's set featuring players who have won the all-star game mp award twice. i always thought that garvey was the first, but apparently willie mays accomplished the feat in the 1960's. others in the set are gary carter, cal ripken jr, and mike trout.  i only purchased the garvey.  as for the '74 card itself, i first saw it in 1979 when i started collecting dodger team sets back to 1970, and i was in awe.  it was horizontal, for one thing.  the only horizontal cards i had in my collection at that time were team checklists. league leaders, and manager cards. not actual player cards.  and then there was the composition of the photo - game action garvey with the out of focus fans in the background - which i found to be somewhat mesmerizing.  i didn't care too much that 1974 was also the year that he won the nl mvp award; for me it was just about the card.  i carried a version of this card in my wallet in the early 1990's through 2003 or so, and then i resurrected it last year.  it's not in my wallet right now (only because i went back to a valet style wallet), but it will probably work its way back in there at some point.

last card on the sheet is a 1999 fleer tradition adrian beltre card. beltre is proving fleer right by still going strong in 2016. he is just about 130 hits shy of 3,000 for his career and should reach that milestone sometime early next summer.  earlier this year, he collected his 950th hit as a ranger, which passed his hit total as a dodger.  when he goes into the hall of fame, my money is on him wearing a rangers hat.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2001 topps chrome eric gagne at number 569, 1975 topps jim wynn

at number 570, 1970 topps jim brewer at number 571, 1966 topps darrell griffith

at number 573, 1993 upper deck darryl strawberry

at number 575, and 2002 upper deck victory dave roberts at number 576.

my favorite card on the page:

garvey, of course.

final thoughts:

it was painful to not put the '75 wynn in here, but that drysdale all-star card beats just about anything. i also really like the '93 upper deck strawberry, but there was no way steve garvey's '74 topps card was going to be replaced.  it's too bad that neither one of those cards were number 572, although there are a lot worse cards in the target set than the newk.

like that one.

frankendodger sheet 41 (cards 361-369) - with bill and ted and a not so excellent cartoon...

here's sheet number 41 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 361-369:

and the back:

these cards are:

361. 2000 fleer tradition todd hollandsworth
362. 1994 leaf todd worrell
363. 1992 topps john candelaria
364. 1966 topps nate oliver
365. 1967 topps john roseboro
366. 1977 topps ted sizemore
367. 1997 upper deck collector's choice chan ho park
368. 1973 topps bill buckner
369. 1970 topps alan foster

the "no brainer" of the day:

there is not really an obvious choice here, but the closest thing to a no brainer on this page would be the 1977 topps sizemore card, i think.  it's the only card we have of the 1969 rookie of the year from his second time around with the dodgers.

about the cards:

fleer kind of ripped off the 1954 topps design with their 2000 tradition release, and then they used the 1956 topps design the following year before realizing that they had some designs of their own they could use.  i'm not a big fan of this particular hollandsworth card - i think the green is too bright - but i had a double of it and it fit in the set.

the 1994 leaf card is todd worrell's first entry in the set. two todds in a row, and two rookies of the year in a row, too.  worrell was, to me, the first modern closer that the dodgers employed, and he was the one who broke jim brewer's team saves record (since surpassed by jeff shaw, eric gagne, and now kenley jansen).  just like the front of hollandsworth's card gives us mini holly and giant holly, the back of worrell's card gives us a giant worrell in dodger stadium.  i appreciate the use of chavez ravine as the background for the back of the card, but i don't need it to be obscured by a third picture of worrell.

the back of john candelaria's 1992 topps card should also have a picture of dodger stadium on it, but for the fact that the candy man has too many rows of stats.  this is partially due to the fact that topps gives a separate row to each team for which candelaria pitched each year, so there are a few seasons with a couple of rows.  i prefer this approach to stats on the back as opposed to combining stats for different teams, probably because this is the way topps did it (and still does).

with their 1966 topps and 1967 topps cards, respectively, nate oliver and john roseboro give us a look at the evoluton of topps design from one year to the next.  there aren't too many instances in this set where we go chronologically in order from one year to the next. for the record, i prefer the 1967 design to the 1966 design.

i mentioned above that the 1977 topps ted sizemore card is the only one produced showing him as a dodger following the trade between the dodgers and cardinals in march of 1976 that sent willie crawford to st. louis.  that trade occurred too late, i guess, for sizemore's sspc card to be changed or for a topps traded card to be made.  by the time this card was issued, however, sizemore was playing for the phillies.  he was on the field for the phils in game 3 of the 1977 nlcs (aka 'black friday'), and it was his 9th inning fielding error on greg luzinski's throw (the ball skipped away from sizemore) that allowed manny mota to go to third where he scored on davey lopes' infield single.  it's too bad, but i'm glad the dodgers won.

chan ho park shows off some spring training bullpen stuff on his 1996 upper deck collector's choice card.  it's the kind of photo that a fan might take while walking around dodgertown in the mid 1990's, and i like that.  i also like the dodger stadium background in the photo on the back.  no giant chan ho, either.

bill buckner is also at spring training on his 1973 topps card, but he's not posing for a fan.  billy buck is wearing a first baseman's glove as he was wes parker's heir apparent, but we all know now that he eventually moved to the outfield to make way for steve garvey.  the only bad thing about this card is the cartoon on the back:

buckner was born in the north bay - vallejo, to be exact - and attended high school in napa, so his fandom for the giants makes sense. still, i imagine the original owner of this card being disturbed by this fact and taking a red marker to the cartoon to express their disgust.

the last card on the page is alan foster's 1970 topps card.  the cartoon on the back of foster's card notes that he received a $100,000 bonus to sign with the dodgers in 1965. that's a better cartoon.

cards that didn't make the cut:

for whatever reason, some of the cards that i passed on for this page include 2001 upper deck vintage dodgers rookies (mike judd, hiram bocachica, and luke prokopec) at number 361, 1982 donruss terry forster at number 362, 1961 topps john roseboro at number 363, 1959 topps danny mcdevitt

at number 364, 1999 topps raul mondesi

at number 365, 1985 fleer dave anderson at number 366, 2014 topps brian wilson

at number 367, 1974 topps manny mota at number 368, and 1994 pinnacle brett butler at number 369.

my favorite card on the page:

chan ho park's 1996 collector's choice card is my favorite here.  something about the background and the design of the card.

final thoughts:

we are halfway through the set already.  this seems like a good spot to thank people for following along so far, and for reading, commenting, and continuing to trade cards with me.  it is much appreciated!

frankendodger sheet 27 (cards 235 - 243) - why not world champions?...

here's sheet number 27 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 235-243:

and the back:

these cards are:

235. 2009 topps chad billingsley
236. 1982 donruss robert castillo
237. 2008 topps update manny ramirez
238. 1966 topps dodger team
239. 1973 topps pete richert
240. 2015 topps stadium club josh beckett
241. 2013 topps gypsy queen chris capuano (framed white parallel)
242. 1984 o-pee-chee greg brock
243. 1979 o-pee-chee reggie smith

the "no brainer" of the day:

the manny ramirez card from 2008 topps update was perhaps the card i've most highly anticipated since the first steve garvey relic card was finally made.  card companies started putting relics in packs in 1997, but it took them until 2001 to make one of the garv.  with manny's hot start to his dodger career, i couldn't wait to get an official card of him in dodger blue.  as a result, his card was not going to be held out of this set.

about the cards:

that 2009 topps chad billingsley card comes from a time when i was pretty excited about the dodgers and bills.  the dodgers had made it to the nlcs for the first time since 1988 the previous season, and bills was coming off of a 16-win season in which he pitched 200+ innings and had 200+ strikeouts. he started the 2009 season well, and was 9-4 at the break, but faltered in the second half.  three years later, in august of 2012, i was at the game in which he was injured.  he made only two more appearances as a dodger, both in 2013, before missing all of 2014 and moving on to the phillies last year.

bobby castillo's 1982 donruss card confused me. it's got a great shot of castillo in dodger stadium, but he is referred to as "robert" on the front.  while fleer used "robert" on both their 1981 and 1982 cards of the dodger reliever, he was correctly referred to as "bobby" on the front of his 1981 donruss card (topps used "bobby" in 1979 and every year that he had a topps card thereafter) but for some reason donruss changed things up. i had never heard vin scully or jerry doggett or ross porter refer to him as robert, so i didn't understand why the change was made.  donruss eventually went back to "bobby" in 1984.

as i mentioned above, i was anxiously awaiting the 2008 topps update manny ramirez card, and wasn't disappointed.  i was, however, disappointed that upper deck scrapped their plans for an update set, even after releasing a mock-up of the manny card.

while bills and manny and the others couldn't get the dodgers to the world series in 2008, the 1965 dodgers won it all.  their 1966 topps team card only gave them props for being the national league champions, however.  i am not sure why they weren't listed as world series champions.  pete richert had been with the dodgers in 1963 when they won the world series (he didn't pitch in the series that year), but was traded away prior to the 1965 season in the claude osteen deal.  he was on his second term with the dodgers when the 1973 card was issued, but they traded him away again prior to the 1974 season and another world series berth.  luckily for richert, he spent some time with the orioles in between his dodger stints and won a ring with the o's in 1970.

josh beckett was the mvp of the 2003 world series, but that's not relevant.  his 2015 topps stadium club card is relevant because it is the only card on the sheet that doesn't have white borders.  more importantly, it serves as a final tribute for the hurler, and it also features a photo from the celebration of his no-hitter thrown on may 25, 2014 against the phillies.

the chris capuano card is another one of the three parallels that made the set (there has been a walmart black andruw jones card shown already, with another walmart parallel yet to come). i had a double of his white framed retail exclusive card, but not his base card. go figure.

the sheet finishes up with a pair of o-pee-chee cards - greg brock from 1984 and reggie smith from 1979.  neither are variations, but the bright cardstock, french on the back, and especially the logo on the 1979 card bring variety to the set nonetheless.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that were considered but omitted include 2010 topps national chicle jackie robinson

at number 235, 1986 o-pee-chee jerry reuss at number 236, 2011 topps gypsy queen roy campanella at number 237, 1961 topps jim gilliam at number 238, 1974 topps bill russell

at number 239, 2011 topps andre ethier at number 240, 2001 upper deck vintage dodger team at number 241, 1995 topps stadium club brett butler

at number 242, and 1980 o-pee-chee rick monday at number 243.

my favorite card on the page:

as much as i like manny's card and o-pee-chee in general, that josh beckett card is my favorite on this sheet.

final thoughts:

i suppose the silver lining to the 1966 topps card not listing the dodgers as world champions is that topps remained consistent and did not list the giants as champs on their 2015 topps heritage team card either. whomever wins the title in 2018 should get a team card (similar to the 1970 mets card) hailing them as world champions in 2019 heritage.

frankendodger sheet 24 (cards 208-216) - maintaining garvey's streak...

here's sheet number 24 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 208-216:

and the back:

these cards are:

208. 2002 topps marquis grissom
209. 2007 topps jonathan broxton
210. 1983 donruss bill russell
211. 2015 topps archives kenley jansen
212. 2002 donruss originals don drysdale
213. 1973 topps steve garvey
214. 2010 topps matt kemp
215. 1984 donruss pat zachry
216. 1991 topps archives ultimate 1953 jim hughes

the "no brainer" of the day:

as much as i like the 2010 topps kemp card, i knew from the get-go that the drysdale card was going to be in this set.

about the cards:

another day, another garvey card. and, a second straight day seeing matt kemp, too.  plus, only two card manufacturers represented.  i haven't really been tracking that, but i'm pretty sure that we haven't had a sheet yet that consists of only one manufacturer.  anyway, marquis grissom leads off the sheet with 2002 topps and those gold borders. i doubt we will see gold borders on a base set ever again thanks to the rise of the gold parallel - even though topps made gold parallels of these gold bordered base cards.  black borders are always an option, and topps went back to them in 2007 as seen on the broxton card. that was the year i returned to my set making ways (i had been buying factory sets plus two boxes of flagship from 1994 until then), but then topps issued a factory set with five new dodger cards and i bought a factory set after all.

bill russell's 1983 donruss card is not my favorite russell card from that year (the fleer card is also in this set - on the next sheet, in fact), and it's too bad his 1983 topps card isn't number 210 because then it would precede kenley jansen's 2015 archives card that uses the 1983 topps design.  that's ok, because we have two cards with the 1984 donruss design on the sheet, starting with don drysdale's 2002 donruss originals card. beginning with some of the sets of the late 90's (fleer si greats, upper deck century legends), i was all-in for sets that featured former players.  especially sets like topps archives and all-time fan favorites and donruss originals that used older card designs for those players.  however, my favorite part of the originals release was the "what if?" cards that showed players on donruss designs that might have existed if they were making cards from 1978 to 1980.  unfortunately for me, only duke snider was included among those cards, and that was only thanks to his 1980 hall of fame induction.  no garvey for me!

garvey does show up (on the fourth sheet in a row) with his 1973 topps card.  i've written about this card before - how, with wes parker showing up, it is a 'passing the torch' kind of card like the tony perez/eric davis card from 1986 topps.  kemp's 2010 topps card is reminiscent of ken griffey jr's great 1994 upper deck card,

although the card design kind of takes away (just a little bit) from the greatness of the kemp card.

pat zachry fills the frame of his 1984 donruss card (notice there's a bit more purple in the dodger design than donruss used in 2002), and he's got the 25th los angeles dodger anniversary patch well displayed. finishing off the sheet is a card featuring a player (jim hughes) from when the dodgers were still in brooklyn, and thanks to the 1991 topps archives set we get to see the 1953 topps design in the frankenset.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i originally had a 2009 upper deck goodwin champions don newcombe card

slotted in at number 208, but then i realized that it is a short print and i didn't have a double of that card. meanwhile, i had about 10 extra grissom cards. c'est la vie.  other cards falling short for one reason or another include 1993 donruss mike piazza (rated rookie!) at number 209, 1963 topps sandy koufax (as if i had a double of that card, too) at number 210, 2009 upper deck greg maddux

at number 211, 1960 topps walt alston at number 212, 1982 topps dave stewart

at number 213, 1991 fleer eddie murray at number 214, 2012 topps archives brett butler (another short print) at number 215, and 1969 topps don sutton at number 216.

my favorite card on the page:

it's no griffey, but i do like that kemp card.

final thoughts:

seeing the jim hughes reprint here got me thinking about the topps sets (1952-1956) that featured cards too big to fit into the 9-page sheets.  i know i have cards featuring reprints or cards that never were from the 1952, 1953, and 1954 sets, but i am not sure off hand if there are 1955 and/or 1956 cards in here.  i know i considered some from the 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers set, but not sure if any made the final cut. i hope that some did...

frankendodger sheet 2 (cards 10-18) - insert the inserts...

here's sheet number 2 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 10-18:

and the back:

these cards are:

10. 1973 topps don sutton
11. 2000 upper deck eric gagne
12. 1968 topps game claude osteen
13. 1990 mother's cookies dodgers kirk gibson
14. 2008 donruss threads carl erskine
15. 2003 topps stadium club shawn green
16. 1992 donruss eric karros
17. 1970 topps booklet bill singer
18. 1992 upper deck pedro martinez

the "no brainer" of the day:

for this sheet, there really isn't a card here that i knew had to be in the set, but i did want to get don sutton in as soon as possible.  as the only hall of famer from the team of my youth, he deserved a spot early on.

about the cards:

i wasn't sure i was going to use inserts in this set, but here we have two of them on the second sheet!  i have quite a few copies of the osteen card (including one in my double play binder), but not as many as i have of the tommy davis card from that insert set.  davis is hatless on the set, and so his team affiliation is unclear and i suppose many folks think of him as a dodger and send the card my way.  however, davis was included in the flagship set that year as a member of the white sox, so let's send those cards to 2x3 heroes instead.

the other insert implied by the title is the bill singer booklet in all of its diamond cut glory.

there are a lot of pitchers on this sheet (with erskine bringing the first unlicensed card to the set), along with a rookie of the year, and a guy who was at one time my favorite dodger.

cards that didn't make the cut:

with the players and sets featured on the first sheet off the board, there were less cards to choose from - and there are a bunch of piazza cards that would have fit on this sheet.  a few cards that did receive some consideration here included osteen's 1971 topps and/or o-pee-chee card at number 10 (but he lost out to sutton), arky vaughn's 1960 fleer card at number 11, the 1967 topps jim campanis/bill singer rookie at number 12, jody reed's 1994 topps stadium club card and willie keeler's 2012 panini cooperstown card at number 13, a sweet 1982 cracker jack duke snider oddball card at number 15, and a 1960 leaf jim gilliam card at number 18.  all gave way to what you see above for one reason or another.  in fact, the reed card was in the set up until last month when i juggled a couple cards around to make room for a new card number 24.  i'll tell that story in the next post.

my favorite card on the page:

had it not been bumped for the gibson, the aforementioned jody reed card may have taken the prize for this sheet.  after all, it's a double play turn in dodger stadium. what's not to like?  however, given the nine cards that made the sheet, i'll go with the card that replaced reed.  a kirk gibson action shot during a day game in dodger stadium.  it's nice.

final thoughts:

i think there are a total of three parallel cards later on in the set, but the osteen and singer cards are the only true inserts in my frankenset.