frankendodger sheet 81 (cards 721-726) - this is the end...

here's sheet number 81 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 721-726:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 725 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number 81; front and back]

these cards are:

721. 1992 donruss jose offerman
722. 1984 topps bob welch
723. 1998 donruss collections preferred mike piazza
724. 2008 upper deck ramon troncoso
725. 1990 target john shelby 2022 topps heritage high numbers clayton kershaw
726. 1981 topps rick monday

the "no brainer" of the day:

i believe that the shelby card may be the only number 725 card ever produced to feature a dodger.  so, it is the no brainer of the day by default.

about the cards:

the much maligned 1992 donruss set opens up the final sheet with a card of much maligned jose offerman.  1992 was the year that offerman took over the shortstop position for the dodgers full-time. he held the position through the 1995 season, after which the dodgers and royals did the steve sax/willie randolph thing with offerman and greg gagne and "swapped" shortstops even though offerman was traded to the royals for a reliever and gagne left kc through free agency.

bob welch's 1984 topps card is up next.  the back of the card - in both the text below the stats and in the important sounding "dateline" section - mentions a couple of shutouts thrown by welch in 1983.  in addition to the one-hitter against the phillies and the 6-hitter in which welch homered for the only run, he also threw a 2-hit shutout that season against the mets, beating tom seaver in the process.

mike piazza makes an appearance on the final sheet with a card from the 1998 donruss collections preferred set. the card is number 173 in the regular preferred set, but in this shinier collections set, it's number 723 (the card number is in the lower right on the back).  strangely enough, the only other option for this spot besides the 1990 target set is piazza's 1992 fleer procards minor league card showing him as an albuquerque duke.

upper deck's last contribution to my dodger frankenset is ramon troncoso's 2008 ud flagship card.  it leaves me wondering if anyone ever entered those codes on the back of these cards into upper deck's website.  i did for some back in 2006, i think, but never enough to have it amount to anything. i don't even remember what the purpose was.

it figures that another 1990 target card would make the last sheet, and here is john shelby to fill a spot that otherwise would not be filled.  t-bone had a career year for the dodgers in 1987 following his trade from baltimore, and he won his second world series ring (he won with the orioles in 1983) as the dodger centerfielder in 1988. clayton kershaw was held back for the high numbers release in 2022, and i am glad that was the case! john shelby still exists in the set thanks to his 1989 topps card, so no harm no foul here!

that brings us to card number 726, the last card in the set, and it's rick monday's 1981 topps card.  wilbur wood was card number 726 in 1978 topps, the first set that i collected, but i later discovered that topps sets were not always 726 cards, and in fact the 1978 set was the first time they had been that exact size.  topps maintained the 726 set for three more seasons - the giants' prospect card held that place in 1979, and in 1980 and 1981, it was a dodger at the end of the set, with the centerfielder of my youth holding court in 1981. of course, this was also the year that the traded set was reinstated, and the numbering of that set began at 727, so one could argue that monday's card is not really the last in the set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there weren't a lot of cards to choose from for this sheet, and so the biggest dilemma i faced was whether to go with the monday card at 726 or use steve yeager's 1980 topps card

there instead.  mo won out, thanks in part to his card featuring an action shot and being from their world championship season.  as for filling out the sheet, henry rodriguez's 1994 topps card

is numbered 727, and there are a couple of options at 728 (1985 topps bob bailor

and 1986 topps mike marshall

to be specific) had i chosen to extend the set.  however, the only 729 i could find (other than the target set) was a 1992 minor league card of eddie pye as an albuquerque duke from that same set as the piazza i mentioned above.  it's just as well to keep the set to 726 cards in my opinion.

my favorite card on the page:

that would be the rick monday card. it is fairly representative of the 1981 postseason to me.

final thoughts:

it wasn't too long after i ended my run at garveyceyrusselllopes about 13 months ago that i started working on this frankenset. it kept me busy with my collection, as did the trades that continued to happen even though i didn't have an active blog at the time.

speaking of trades, i offer a big thanks to those that continued to trade with me, and to those who are trading with me still.  i haven't posted any of the cards that i've received in trades over the last 13 months, so i'll give thanks here to the writer's journey, play at the plate, penny sleeve for your thoughts, arpsmith, tim wallach, tribe cards, dime boxes, 2x3 heroes, bob walk the plank, all trade bait all the time, off hiatus, brad's blog, infield fly rule, waiting 'til next year, baseball card breakdown, baseball every night, waxaholic, fuji, and night owl, who has even commented on all of these posts (assuming he comments on this one).  i've been tracking my trades on the sidebar over at garveyceyrusselllopes, updating it whenever i send or receive a package. it's mainly so i don't miss on sending a return package to someone, and completed trades get removed from the list after about a month. as a result, i may have forgotten to thank someone in the text above - if so, i apologize.  i hope to keep trading even after this blog is completed, and i'll keep that tracker going as long as folks are sending me cards. it is appreciated.

finally, thanks for indulging me with this endeavor.  it was fun to put together and share with you.

i'll be around...

frankendodger sheet 60 (cards 532-540) - in with the new...

here's sheet number 60 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 532-540:

and the back:

these cards are:

532. 1983 topps dave stewart
533. 1984 topps ken landreaux
534. 1993 bowman roger cedeno
535. 1970 topps andy kosco
536. 2016 topps alex wood
537. 1992 topps stadium club bob ojeda
538. 1994 bowman raul mondesi
539. 1978 topps vic davalillo
540. 2009 topps russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the '78 vic davalillo card qualifies, but i added the wood card as soon as i pulled it from a series 2 pack a few weeks ago. it bumped a 1983 donruss tom niedenfuer in case you were wondering.  in with the new, out with the '83 donruss.  i guess it was a card i niedenfuer frankensets.

about the cards:

right off the bat we get to see the topps design progression from 1983 to 1984 thanks to dave stewart and ken landreaux.  the commonality of the smaller picture on the front - from porthole to picture in picture - is obvious, but i would have liked the '84 to play off of the 1964 design just as the '83 cards are somewhat related to the 1963 design.  i bought way more of 1983 topps than 1984 topps which had some to do with the designs, but also had to do with how much i liked 1984 donruss.

1993 bowman put roger cedeno in the bushes. the only fully green background i want to see on a baseball card is either the wrigley field ivy or the green monster in fenway. don't put players in the jungle.

the photo used for andy kosco's 1970 topps card was likely taken around the same time as billy grabarkewitz's and jeff torborg's, but without danny ozark in the background.

alex wood got a nice card in 2016 topps series 2. i am not the biggest fan of the card design, but the dodger bullpen in the background provides a nice contrast to the home whites. it's too bad he hasn't been able to stay healthy - it was just announced that he needs surgery and will be out for a couple of months.

bob ojeda's 1992 topps stadium club card is decent enough, and i like that topps put each player's rookie card on the back. it doesn't mean, as far as my collection goes, that this is a red sox card, however.

1994 bowman - two consecutive years of bowman represented here on the page - is pretty different from the previous year's design. i didn't know much about mondesi going into the 1994 season, but he had a decent consecutive game hitting streak in may of that year that got me interested, and he went on to win the rookie of the year in the strike-shortened season.

i would guess that the photo used for vic davalillo's 1978 topps card came from the same time as the photos for his 1974 topps card,

or maybe spring training of 1974.  the a's released davalillo in may of that year, and he was playing in the mexican league until the dodgers signed him during the 1977 campaign.  his 1979 topps card (and his 1981 fleer card!) shows him clean shaven, which is how i remember him as a dodger.

last card on the page is russell martin's 2009 topps card which shows him taking the brunt of a play at the plate. it's been well documented that martin has some great cards, and this is one of them.  however, it's not his best play at the plate card - that would be the 2008 stadium club card included in the link above.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1992 upper deck jose offerman at number 532, 1968 topps wes parker at number 533, 1991 donruss gary thomasson

at number 534, 1994 donruss cory snyder at number 535, 1983 donruss niedenfuer (the card at least makes this part of the post)

at number 536, 1963 topps ken mcmullen (as if i had a double)

at number 537, 1991 topps stadium club john candelaria

at number 538, 1995 donruss tim wallach at number 539, and 2008 upper deck andruw jones at number 540.

my favorite card on the page:

alex wood's card wins over russell martin's card. perhaps it's because martin has better cards, although that's not entirely fair. well, guess what. life isn't fair.

final thoughts:

i'm still not sure about my ken mcmullen rookie. i have to assume it's a reprint until i have it authenticated, even though it looks great when i compare it to other 1963 topps cards. i tested the guy i bought it from, and i am pretty sure that he believed it to be genuine. if it is, it wouldn't be worth the $130,000 that someone threw down on ebay this week, but it would be worth more than i paid for it.

frankendodger sheet 5 (cards 37-45) - only one belongs at 42

here's sheet number 5 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 37-45:

 and the back:

these cards are:

37. 2009 topps allen & ginter's andre ethier
38. 1985 leaf orel hershiser
39. 1985 topps woolworths maury wills
40. 1984 topps dusty baker
41. 1978 topps burt hooton
42. 1997 topps jackie robinson
43. 1974 topps traded jim wynn
44. 1979 fritsch one year wonders roy gleason
45. 2003 topps 205 brian jordan

the "no brainer" of the day:

today's no brainer is the roy gleason card.  it's one of very few cards that the former dodger and army sergeant has had.  gleason appeared in a recent tristar obak set, but without the logos that are so visible on the fritsch card.  i still sponsor gleason's baseball reference page, and i would encourage you to learn about his story.

about the cards:

the hershiser card is one of his rookies, and it is the first card in this set that will be repeated later on.  that is to say, the 1985 donruss card of hershiser, which is identical to this one except for the leaf logo, will show up in a future post.

also showing up on this page are the left fielder of the team of my youth (dusty baker), as well as the first representative of the 1978 topps dodgers, burt hooton.  and there is, of course, jackie robinson at card number 42.  1997 was the first year that there wasn't a number 7 in the topps set. they had included a mickey mantle tribute type card in the 1996 set, and jackie received a similar card the following year, which was the 50th anniversary of his debut.  baseball retired number 42 that year, and i don't know if that decision had already been made when topps put together the checklist for the 1997 flagship set. it's a nice touch to put jackie there either way.

the brian jordan card is there by default due to the restrictions i put on the first 20 pages. it's probably my least favorite card in the set so far.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that were considered but cut due to either the lack of a double or the aforementioned rules and regulations i established for the first 20 pages of the frankenset include: 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts kirby higbe (#37), 1989 swell baseball greats jose morales (#38), 2009 upper deck goudey 4-in-1 matt kemp, rafael furcal, andre ethier, russell martin (#39), 1963 fleer tommy davis (#40), 1979 tcma the 1950's duke snider, gil hodges, roy campanella, carl furillo (#43), and 2005 topps all-time fan favorites dusty baker (#44).  i considered that baker card until i found the gleason - i had to buy two copies of the gleason to get it into this set, one of the few times i did that to get a specific card included as part of the frankenset.

my favorite card on the page:

there are lots of cards here that i like (8 of them, to be exact), but i'll anoint the gleason card (over the 1978 topps hooton) as my favorite.

final thoughts:

before anyone makes an issue of it, i will say that i put this set together ignoring the 't' in traded sets or the 'uh' in the latter-day update & highlights sets and the like.  it's the card number that matters, and i was happy to include the toy cannon and his 1974 topps traded card on this sheet.