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 62 (cards 550-558) - is the plural of martinez martini?...

here's sheet number 62 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 550-558:

and the back:

these cards are:

550. 1992 topps darryl strawberry
551. 2011 topps marcus thames
552. 2014 topps yasiel puig
553. 2007 topps ramon martinez
554. 1994 score pedro martinez
555. 2010 upper deck dodger stadium
556. 1989 score rick dempsey
557. 1981 donruss don stanhouse
558. 1977 topps elias sosa

the "no brainer" of the day:

the strawberry card came to mind before the dodger stadium card (it is one of my favorites, after all), so it qualifies as today's no brainer.

about the cards:

the sheet starts out with four straight running men.  darryl strawberry's 1992 topps card is pretty classic, with the straw rounding third at shea stadium.  next, short-time dodger marcus thames is running out of the batter's box on his 2011 topps card. thames was signed by the dodgers prior to the 2011 season, and lasted with the club just until the middle of july that season.  he returned to the yankees, but didn't make it back to the bigs after his stint in los angeles.

yasiel puig is running around the bases at dodger stadium on this 2014 topps card that doubles as a checklist. puig is honored for having the 2nd most hits in a debut month in history.  of course, the card doesn't tell you that the top spot on that list belongs to joe dimaggio, but that's why i'm here.

last running man is ramon martinez (but not that ramon martinez) on his 2007 topps card. ramon e. martinez played for the dodgers in both 2006 and 2007, and although their careers overlapped, this ramon never faced the other ramon.  the other ramon's brother, pedro, did face this ramon.  this ramon was 0 for 3 with a walk against the hall of famer who is the second martinez (martini?) to make this sheet courtesy of his 1994 score card.

next up is the dodger stadium card from 2010 upper deck. this card is not as bad as some of the other stadiums (the target field card is literally a photo taken from the street (7th street to be exact) during construction), and it offers up a view not previously seen on a card.  it's too bad that the photo was cropped so that we don't get to see the full eric gagne banner, but we still see the windows of the stadium club restaurant and the back of the right field pavilion, along with some palm trees.  no palm trees at target field, by the way.

rick dempsey's 1989 score card features the dodger backup catcher in away grays that almost blend into the background.  my favorite rick dempsey card is his 1989 upper deck card. will it be in the frankenset? maybe.

following dempsey is a former oriole teammate of his, don stanhouse.  stanhouse's 1981 donruss card is my favorite of his dodger cards - there are only three mainstream cards to choose from - due to its high school yearbook look.  it's kinda zany.  stanhouse was coming off of two good seasons as the orioles' closer (although he did not have a good postseason in 1979) when the dodgers signed him as a free agent for the 1980 season.  stan the man unusual gave up four runs in his first game as a dodger, and missed most of the summer due to injury.  he was released at the start of the 1981 season, which was way too late to keep him out of the topps, fleer, and donruss sets - thankfully.

last up is a 1977 topps elias sosa card.  sosa is probably best known for being one of the dodger pitchers (along with burt hooton and charlie hough) to give up a home run to reggie jackson in game 6 of the 1977 world series.  that was the last pitch sosa threw as a dodger.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1959 topps roy campanella

at number 550, 1974 topps von joshua at number 551, 1991 topps jeff hamilton at number 552, 1970 topps jim lefebvre

at number 553, 1991 topps stadium club greg smith at number 554, 1983 topps steve yeager

at number 555, 1995 topps stadium club hideo nomo at number 556, 1993 topps pedro martinez at number 557, and 1991 upper deck jay howell at number 558.

my favorite card on the page:

daaaaaaaaaaa-rryl!

final thoughts:

the dodgers have had two ramon martinezes (martini?) two mike marshalls, two mike ramseys, two reggie williamses and most recently two roberto hernandezes (including the one that once was known as fausto carmona) but if you go back far enough in franchise history, there have been two dick egans, two bill harts, two jim hickmans, two jim hughes, and two jack ryans as well.  this doesn't count the two dick schofields and two ivan dejesuses because those were father/son combos.

frankendodger sheet 56 (cards 496-504) - brad penny, medium?...

here's sheet number 56 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 496-504:

and the back:

these cards are:

496. 1986 topps jay johnstone
497. 2008 topps heritage brad penny
498. 1975 topps al downing
499. 1988 donruss tracy woodson
500. 1994 upper deck mike piazza
501. 1992 fleer ultra tom candiotti
502. 1991 donruss eddie murray
503. 1993 pacific jody reed
504. 1977 topps dodgers team/tom lasorda

the "no brainer" of the day:

when looking at options for the hero number of 500, the 1994 upper deck piazza card stood out as the best (most reasonable) option - balancing duplicate availability with someone worthy of the number. that's as close to a no brainer as any of these cards are going to get.

about the cards:

jay johnstone was done as a big league ballplayer when his 1986 topps card was released. the previous season, johnstone had hit just .133 is 17 games in his second tenure with the dodgers, although he did make the postseason roster and had his final big league at bat in the nlcs against the cardinals.

brad penny earned an all-star card in 2008 topps heritage even though he wasn't the national league's starting pitcher in the 2007 all-star game.  that would have been jake peavy, who also won the 2007 nl cy young award (penny finished 3rd behind peavy and brandon webb).  penny had started the 2006 all-star game for the national league, becoming the first dodger pitcher to do so since hideo nomo in 1995.

it wasn't often that we got a posed photo inside dodger stadium back in the '70s or '80s, so i really like cards like this 1975 topps al downing.  it's also the reason i really like several dodger cards in the 1989 topps set.  downing's head is blocking our view of the three sisters palm trees, however.

tracy woodson and 1988 donruss make their first (only?) appearance in the frankenset.  both are pretty forgettable, although woodson has a world series championship ring and i do not.  in fact, his rbi groundout in the 7th inning of game 4 of the 1988 world series proved to be the game-winner, as the dodgers won that swing game 4-3.

mike piazza is preparing for a play at the plate on his 1994 upper deck card, which fills our fifth big hero number of the set.  piazza will be inducted into the hall of fame this coming weekend.  as night owl mentioned, it would have been nice for piazza to go into the hall with a team neutral cap, although i would prefer a backwards facing helmet!

there's not much to talk about regarding tom candiotti's 1992 fleer ultra card that hasn't already been said about other cards with similar images - dodger stadium, etc.  however, i will thank fleer for using a photo of tom with a knuckleball grip.  on second thought, perhaps it would be more interesting to see him with a different grip.

have you ever considered how much 1991 donruss resembles 1986 donruss? i hadn't until now, as i have not given much thought to 1991 donruss ever.  still, eddie murray's card here with the border design and the slanted bottom edge of the photo made me think of the max headroom set.

what do you think?

i took three years of spanish in high school, but i don't pretend to be able to understand the language. i used to find it curious that pacific, on jody reed's 1993 card and others, translated 'second' to 'segunda', but not 'base' to 'beis'.  after all, 'baseball' is 'beisbol' in spanish.  apparently that is all i know, because 'base' is 'base' in spanish.  apologies, pacific, for questioning your translation consistencies.

last card of the page is the 1977 topps dodgers team card that also features tom lasorda for the first time as their manager. it serves as the team checklist, too.  i am fairly wishy-washy about how i refer to this card. sometimes it's the team card, sometimes it's lasorda's card.  i would probably defer to it as the team card if i had to make a choice. for the purposes of this set, however, i am going to label it as a team card and a lasorda card.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1996 fleer ultra greg gagne at number 496, 1997 fleer mike piazza at number 497, 2005 topps jd drew

at number 498, 1987 donruss dennis powell at number 499, 1962 topps duke snider

at number 500, 1997 score mike piazza at number 501, 1963 topps daryl spencer at number 502, 1967 topps dodgers team at number 503, and 2001 topps bruce aven at number 504.

my favorite card on the page:

this is kind of a rough page, but i'll go with al downing's 1975 topps card as my favorite.  once again, it's tough to beat daytime at dodger stadium.

final thoughts:

brad penny had a couple of pretty good season for the dodgers after coming over from the marlins in the paul loduca trade.  he was an all-star two seasons in a row, and his 16 wins were enough to lead the league in 2006.  i wonder, however, did he have another talent outside of baseball?  i wonder this because of what is written on the back of his card above: "brad has gotten many pitching tips from the late hall of famer warren spahn".  knowing that both penny and spahn were from oklahoma, it is easy to understand how the two would have had conversations prior to spahn's passing in 2003, but had i not known of their oklahoma roots, i may have thought penny was channeling spahn's spirit for some pointers based on the text.

frankendodger sheet 49 (cards 433-441) - who wore it better?...

here's sheet number 49 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 433-331:

frankendodger sheet 47 (cards 415-423) - big d asks the questions...

here's sheet number 47 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 415-423:

and the back:

these cards are:

415. 1996 upper deck eddie murray
416. 1981 donruss dave lopes
417. 1978 topps mike garman
418. 1962 topps andy carey
419. 1991 score ramon martinez
420. 2003 topps paul quantrill
421. 1977 topps doug rau
422. 1993 score jim gott
423. 1987 donruss len matuszek

the "no brainer" of the day:

ramon martinez striking out 18 braves was certainly worthy of a highlight card from score, but the appearance of don drysdale on the back makes it a must for the frankenset.  no doubt that card was going to be in the set.

about the cards:

in 1990, eddie murray led the major leagues with a .330 batting average.  unfortunately, he didn't win the national league batting title that year because willie mcgee was hitting .335 when the cardinals traded him out of the league and to the a's.  he hit .274 for oakland, and his aggregate average dropped to .324.  anyway, this 1996 upper deck card is all about this 'strange but true' occurrence.

have you ever looked at 1981 donruss and 1978 topps next to one another? well, you are now thanks to the numbering of the dave lopes and mike garman cards.  notice anything? i see many similarities between the two designs, and for the dodgers, that includes the red framing of the photo. i am too lazy to go and compare the colors used for all of the other teams between the two sets, but i do know that both used red for the a's as well.

it seems like it's been a while since we've had a 1962 topps card in the set. andy carey's 1962 topps card should have been a phillies card as he was dealt to philadelphia by the white sox following the 1961 season.  carey refused to report, however, so the chisox sent someone else to philadelphia and traded carey to the dodgers instead.

score gave ramon martinez a card in their 'k-man' subset at number 408 and then followed that up with another ramon card that has to do with strikeouts here at 419.  this one is a highlight card recalling his 18 strikeout performance against the braves.  ramon had 4 outs to go when he got his 18th k, but didn't record any more after that.  still, that was good enough to tie sandy koufax's dodger record and get a postgame interview with dodger broadcaster don drysdale. major props to score for putting a photo of big d (whose career high for strikeouts in a game was 14) and ramon together on the back. i wish upper deck had done a similar thing in 1989 with a card celebrating orel hershiser breaking drysdale's consecutive scoreless inning streak. drysdale was in san diego that night, and he congratulated orel in the dugout after the game. upper deck did use a photo from that game on orel's nlcs mvp card, strangely enough.

2003 topps makes for great dodger cards with its blue borders as evidenced by this paul quantrill card. quantrill, by the way, was drafted by the dodgers in 1986, but did not sign.  he joined the dodgers after leading the american league in appearances in 2001 and promptly led the national league in that category for both of his seasons as a dodger.  then, for good measure, he led the league again in 2004 with the yankees.  quantrill holds second (89 games) and third place (86 games) on the all-time dodger leader board in that category, behind only dr. mike marshall and his 106 appearances in 1974.

doug rau and jim gott have been in the set before, and there's not much new to say about either of them. 1977 topps has been pretty well represented, too, but i think this is the first time we are seeing 1993 score. i like the angle of the photo used on gott's score card - the background is half pavilion/half bullpen - but it's not as sharp as a card as we will see in a few pages.

last but not least (or, maybe least) is len matuszek's 1987 donruss card. matuszek will always be to me al oliver 2.0.  the dodgers traded for oliver prior to the 1985 season, and i was somewhat excited to see him in a dodger uniform.  however, oliver underperformed and was dealt to the blue jays in july.  it seemed like al campanis had a quick hook for oliver which disappointed me.  anyway, matuszek was the guy who the dodgers received in return, and he really wasn't much different than oliver at the plate.  i never really warmed to matuszek as a dodger because i was a bigger fan of oliver, but neither the dodgers nor the blue jays made it past the league championship series that year, despite both teams having a 2 games to none advantage, so i guess it doesn't really matter much and i should get over it 31 years later.

cards that didn't make the cut:

other cards considered but not chosen include 2014 topps andre ethier at number 415, 1976 tommy john at number 416, 2007 fleer andy laroche at number 417, 2010 topps heritage jim thome

at number 418, 1996 topps stadium club antonio osuna

at number 419, 1981 donruss tom lasorda

at number 420,   2002 topps 206 james loney at number 422 (if i come across a double of this card, it will replace the '93 score gott), and 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee mark loretta at number 423.  i am not aware of a different dodger card than the rau at number 421 other than from the target dodger anniversary set.

my favorite card on the page:

i really like having a card that addresses eddie murray's lost batting title, and the lopes and garman cards are likable, too.  however, the don drysdale appearance on ramon martinez's 1991 score card puts it over the top and makes it my favorite card on this page.

final thoughts:

while the 1981 donruss design is similar to that of 1978 topps, i don't hold it in quite the same esteem.  and, i didn't go crazy for it when panini issued some cards last year with the design.  however, i do have a master 1978 topps set going.  in addition to the 726 card set (and its o-pee-chee counterpart), i have collected cards with the 1978 design that are different from the flagship set, such as the willie montanez topps zest card, the variations in the burger king astros, rangers, tigers, and yankees sets, as well as the cards with that design that have been featured in the fan favorites sets over the years.  i believe that i am only missing a doug decinces auto from 2003 fan favorites.  anyway, steve at white sox cards recently pointed out that topps is going to issue 'birth year' cards as an insert set in update this year.  as part of a blog bat around in 2009, i had proposed doing cards in the design of current players' birth years as a way to appease the active player requirement in an archives type release, while also including final tribute cards that should have been of former players. steve has produced dozens of birth year cards for white sox players since then - popularizing the idea in my opinion. it doesn't look like he'll get any sort of credit, which is too bad.  as for me, i'm just hoping that there is a chase utley card in the set since his birth year is - you guessed it - 1978.

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 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 36 (cards 316-324) - mccourt makes the set...

here's sheet number 36 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 316-324:

and the back:

these cards are:

316. 2001 topps archives jackie robinson
317. 1993 score select carlos hernandez
318. 1979 topps bob welch
319. 2013 topps allen & ginter's matt kemp
320. 1995 upper deck mike piazza
321. 1960 topps ron fairly
322. 1977 topps bill russell
323. 2010 topps jim thome
324. 1959 topps don demeter

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are some pretty key cards here, but i wanted to get a version of jackie's 1952 topps card into the set, so that one is the biggest no brainer of the bunch.

about the cards:

first things first - the 2001 archives jackie robinson card is numbered 312 on the back, but i have it at number 316.  that's because 312 was jackie's card number in the original 1952 topps set (the first of the high numbers).  you have to look really closely at the fine print on the back

to see that the card is numbered 316 out of 450 in the archives set.  jackie's original '52 topps card

is one of the highlights of my collection, and i am happy to have it represented in the frankenset.

the back of carlos hernandez's 1993 select card anoints him as the "heir apparent to mike scioscia" in the dodger catching lexicon, but unfortunately for carlos, there was another.  thankfully for us dodger fans, there was a bob welch card in 1979 to collect after the rookie struck out reggie jackson to end game 2 of the 1978 world series. that put the dodgers up 2 games to 0, but it would be the last dodger highlight of the season.  there is no mention of welch's world series experience on the back of the card, which was disappointing to me when i pulled my first copy of this card from a pack.  still, two years later, i was still able to use the "he struck out reggie" to pry welch cards away from the yankee fan across the street.

matt kemp's 2013 a&g card is here to remind me that he was once my favorite dodger, and the guy that i hoped would break eric karros's franchise home run record.  of course, i thought that the next guy on the sheet would have been the one to set the franchise home run record.  mike piazza is, of course, the catcher that blocked carlos hernandez from fulfilling the prophecy noted on the back of the select card earlier on the page.  i like his 1995 upper deck card because it focuses on piazza the catcher (at least on the front) instead of giving us another card of him standing at the plate.  both kemp and piazza (and steve garvey) wound up in san diego playing for the padres.  hopefully that trend doesn't continue.

ron fairly's 1960 topps card is cool because of the big ol' rookie cup/trophy.  1960 was the first year that topps had the rookie cup in their set, and i am still a bit upset that they took a few years off from putting the cup on cards - most notably 1974 when davey lopes would have had one and from 1982-1984 when fernando, saxy, and greg brock would have all been rocking the cup.

bill russell's 1977 topps card balances out the kemp and piazza cards in that it reminds me that it is (or at least was) possible for a player to stay with one club for a lengthy career.  of course, russell was unceremoniously dismissed by the team as its manager, and wound up wearing a tampa bay devil rays uniform as a coach and minor league manager.

jim thome's 2010 topps card was another card that i highly anticipated.  i was worried that topps would leave thome out until series 2 by when they would have photoshopped him into his twins uniform.  well, i got a thome dodger card in series one that i am pretty sure includes former dodger owner frank mccourt just to the right of thome's shinguard. thome was an odd pickup for the dodgers, as he was only available for pinch-hitting duty, but the dodgers are no strangers to carrying pinch-hitting specialists once the rosters expand.  the dodgers are the only team for which thome played that he did not hit a home run. for the record, his 2010 season in minnesota, the first year of target field, was fantastic. he was a huge fan favorite and had some big hits for the club.

lastly, we have don demeter's 1959 topps card.  not yellow like most of the other dodger cards in the set, this card is a welcome sight in my team binder even if the image shows demeter not acting natural, and is the same one that topps used for his 1958 card.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i passed over a few cards when putting this sheet together such as 1995 pinnacle raul mondesi at number 316, 2015 topps clayton kershaw at number 317, 1980 topps jerry reuss

at number 318, 2002 fleer tradition marquis grissom at number 319, 1996 score hideo nomo at number 320, 1997 topps eric karros

at number 321, 1972 topps jose pena at number 322, 1958 topps elmer valo

at number 323, and 1973 topps al downing at number 324.

my favorite card on the page:

oh the joy of having a bob welch card in 1979! it is easily my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

i am so glad that we aren't hearing anything about either of the mccourts these days.