frankendodger sheet 76 (cards 676-684) - kiki with an i not an e...

here's sheet number 76 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 676-684:

and the back:

these cards are:

676. 1990 score kiki jones
677. 2002 upper deck 40 man paul loduca
678. 1994 bowman antonio osuna
679. 1980 topps dodgers future stars (joe beckwith/mickey hatcher/dave patterson)
680. 1985 topps jerry reuss
681. 1983 topps dodgers leaders (pedro guerrero/fernando valenzuela)
682. 1993 topps john candelaria
683. 1994 topps cory snyder
684. 1992 score jeff hamilton

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the 1980 topps dodgers future stars card is the closest thing to a no brainer here, but not sure that it qualifies. i'll make as good a case as i can below.

about the cards:

keith "kiki" jones was 8-0 in the rookie league in 1989, prompting score to add him to their 1990 set.  he never did make it to the big leagues despite a good arm and curveball, according to scouts - another dodger first round pick that didn't pan out.

paul loduca may or may not have had some illegal help in getting to the big leagues (he was named in the mitchell report), but he made it, and found himself in the 2002 upper deck 40 man set.  this was the evolution of upper deck's victory set, which was similar to topps total.  as a team collector, i appreciate sets like these, although the 2003 40 man set is better, in my opinion.

1994 bowman is here with antonio osuna and so much foil!  everytime i see a card of antonio osuna, i find myself looking for that monstrous pendant he wore around his neck the first time i saw him pitch.

the first rookie cards i saw were the 4-in-1 cards in the 1978 topps set. those cards, in keeping tradition with what was produced from 1974 through '78, had multiple teams represented on each card (in 1973, the rookie cards had three players from different teams on them).  in 1979, topps gave me a card with just dodgers on it, but it was in black and white.  then, in 1980, they gave me this trio of dodgers in full color!  shades of 1972, i would eventually learn.  anyway, i knew who all three of these guys (joe beckwith, mickey hatcher, and dave patterson) were because they had played for the dodgers in 1979 - in fact, i still remember listening to the game in which hatcher made his major league debut because he came up with the bases loaded and vin scully noted that he had a chance to do something very rare in his first big league at bat.  well, hatcher didn't hit a grand slam, but he did walk.  i was pretty happy to have this card in 1980, even though patterson never made it back to the majors.

jerry reuss makes another appearance in the set with his 1985 topps card. he looks pretty happy to be in vero beach, and i can't really blame him given the circumstances.   he wound up sporting a 2.92 era in 1985, which didn't even crack the top ten in the national league.  he also lost 10 games with an era split of 1.21 in his wins, and 7.03 in his losses.  his era in the 1985 postseason was 10.80 - can you guess what the game outcome was?

pedro guerrero and fernando valenzuela were the dodgers' batting and pitching leaders in 1982, respectively.  i know this thanks to this 1983 topps card that marks the return of the dodger logo to topps cards for the first time since what, 1963?

in hindsight, i am left wondering why the logo is in a box rather than a circle, since all of the other 1983 topps cards have circles (portholes, if you will). 1984 is the one with squares (picture in picture, i call it).

john candelaria's 1993 topps card is right next to cory snyder's 1994 topps card, so you can try to find some back-to-back design evolutionary ties.  i can't find any, really, but i was happy that topps went back to the landscape oriented backs in '94.  snyder's card, with him camped out on second base, reminds me of my final little league (minors) game.  i was 9 and on third base. two of my friends were on second and first, respectively, and a kid that we only knew through baseball was at the plate.  two outs, full count, down by a run with the league championship on the line - all of the cliches you can think of. the kid at bat swung at ball 4 and the game was over. my friend sat on second base and looked pretty much the same way snyder does on his card.

last card on the sheet is jeff hamilton's 1992 score card.  that's pretty much all i have to say about that.  oh, all right - i'll mention that hamilton was the losing pitcher in the 22-inning game between the astros and dodgers in 1989. he struck out ken caminiti (and billy hatcher), but was beat by a rafael ramirez walk-off single. this was the same game that ended with eddie murray playing third base and fernando valenzuela at first.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2006 upper deck ricky ledee at number 676, 2006 upper deck sandy alomar jr

at number 677, 2002 upper deck 40 man mark grudzielanek at number 678, 1981 topps dodgers team

at number 679, 2002 upper deck 40 man paul quantrill at number 680, 1982 topps dodgers future stars (mike marshall/ron roenicke/steve sax) - my last double was sent out for some ttm action -

at number 681, 1987 topps jerry reuss at number 682, 2002 upper deck 40 man eric gagne at number 683, and 2002 upper deck 40 man giovanni carrara at number 684.

my favorite card on the page:

as much as i appreciate seeing disappointed cory snyder on second base, i like the 1980 topps future stars card more.

final thoughts:

the dodgers currently have a player on their roster named enrique hernandez.  his nickname, like that of keith jones, is pronounced by many as "key-key".  however, enrique spells it with an "e" on the end, rather than the second "i", and it is actually pronounced "key-kay".  it's all about the accent over the "e".  anyway, the first time i saw enrique's nickname in print (without the accent), i was a bit surprised, as it is commonly known to be a slur for jewish people.  i am pretty sure this is why topps cards show his name as enrique,

and not his nickname.

frankendodger sheet 73 (cards 649-657) - that's a high number for a chrome set...

here's sheet number 73 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 649-657:

and the back:

these cards are:

649. 1987 fleer ralph bryant/jose gonzalez
650. 2009 topps heritage jim thome
651. 1981 topps pedro guerrero
652. 2005 topps dodgers team
653. 2001 topps chrome jackie robinson
654. 1985 topps dave anderson
655. 2008 topps heritage angel berroa
656. 1992 donruss ramon martinez
657. 1991 donruss dennis cook

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1981 topps pedro guerrero card - his first solo card.

about the cards:

the dodgers had been shut out of fleer prospect/rookie cards in previous issues (1985 and 1986), so i was happy to see this ralph bryant/jose gonzalez card in fleer's 1987 set. both bryant and gonzalez debuted with the dodgers in 1985 and had relatively significant playing time with the team in 1986, so they weren't really prospects anymore. gonzalez played in the majors for a few more seasons, but bryant left for japan following the 1987 campaign.

jim thome joined the dodgers just about 7 years ago with 564 home runs to his name. he left the dodgers for minnesota after the season ended with 564 home runs to his name.  all we dodger collectors got were a few jim thome dodger cards, including this 2009 topps heritage card.  he kicked ass in minny in 2010, by the way, which was fun to watch.

after including pedro guerrero in the 1979 set as part of the future stars subset, topps ignored him in 1980.  they were, however, the only folks to make a card of guerrero in 1981, and for that i was thankful. this remains my favorite topps pedro guerrero card (my second favorite is the one topps issued as part of their fan favorites set in 2005

that also used the 1981 design, which i liked so much, i put it in my blog header at garveyceyrusselllopes).

the 2005 topps dodger team card was chosen for the next spot over the 2004 topps dodger team card (way to recycle the checklist, topps) simply because the back addresses the fact that the '04 team won the west for the first time since 1995. that 9 year drought is the longest for the team since divisional play began,

filling the number 653 spot is a jackie robinson golden moments card from 2001 topps chrome.  the 2016 topps chrome set that was released last week has a scant 200 cards in the base set. the chrome set went from 660 as recent as 2002 to 440 in 2003 to 330 in 2006 to 220 in 2008. last year was the first to feature a 200 card checklist.

dave anderson's 1985 topps card features a photo that shows the olympic patch that the dodgers wore in 1984 to celebrate the games being hosted in los angeles. dodger stadium was used for baseball, which was an exhibition sport that year.  i hear that baseball will return to the olympics in 2020 in tokyo, and i am left to wonder whether mlb and the mlbpa will decide to find a way to let major leaguers participate.

the thome card and this 2008 topps heritage angel berroa card give me some hope that a few of the spots being filled by 1990 target cards (or other weaker cards) might yet be filled by heritage high number cards.  it would be great if this year's josh reddick heritage high number card turned out to be 718, for example.

it seems like there have been a few ramon martinez cards in the set lately, and there have been.  this 1992 donruss card is the latest card of pedro's older brother to be featured. i'm not sure what stadium ramon is pitching in there, but the color of the outfield wall is clearly dodger blue.

the last card on this sheet is dennis cook's 1991 donruss card. clearly a night card, as opposed to darryl strawberry's 1991 donruss card

i think. i am pretty sure strawberry's presser was during the day, and i know it was held indoors.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1972 topps pete richert

at number 649, 1971 topps rich allen

at number 650, 1993 topps rafael bournigal at number 651, 2004 topps dodgers team at number 652, 1994 score dodger stadium

at number 653, 1986 topps ken howell at number 654, 1992 topps brett butler at number 655, 1989 upper deck fernando valenzuela at number 656, and 1992 bowman roger mcdowell at number 657.

my favorite card on the page:

if only thome had been wearing a hat or helmet when the photo used on his heritage card was taken, it might have supplanted the pedro guerrero card as my favorite on the page.

final thoughts:

i took a quick look around, and see that this year's heritage high number set will finish with a card numbered 725.  that's great. i really do hope there are a couple of dodger cards at numbers that i can use (come on, 718!).

frankendodger sheet 70 (cards 622-630) - cey hey!...

here's sheet number 70 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 622-630:

and the back:

these cards are:

622. 1976 topps rick auerbach
623. 1993 score mike scioscia
624. 2008 topps joe torre
625. 1990 donruss fernando valenzuela
626. 1985 topps german rivera
627. 1992 donruss john wetteland
628. 1995 topps rafael bournigal
629. 1989 upper deck ricky horton
630. 1978 topps ron cey

the "no brainer" of the day:

1978 topps. ron cey.  'nuff said.

about the cards:

the sheet begins with a 1976 topps card of rick auerbach, who was an honorary member of the infield in 1975 after bill russell got hurt. he played in 85 total games that season (81 at short), but drove in only 12 runs.  that's not so bad when you consider that future dodger enzo hernandez drove in 12 while playing in 143 games in 1971.

mike scioscia is caught in the classic catcher pose of looking for a pop up on his 1993 score card.  at least this card depicts some real wrigley field game action.

next up is joe torre's 2008 topps card. this is one of my all-time least favorite topps flagship designs, and this particular card has just about the most bland looking photo. not that there are many options for manager photos, but still.  to make matters worse, i think torre's card in the special 55-card dodger set that topps put out that same year looks almost identical to this one.

fernando makes his second appearance of the week with a 1990 donruss card.  between this set, the 1990 donruss baseball's best set,

and 1991 fleer,

we got our fill of primary colors in the early 90's.

german rivera played a fair amount of third base for the dodgers in 1984, primarily after the dodgers moved pedro guerrero back to the outfield where he belonged.  rivera's 1985 topps card had a 'dodger rookie card' markup at my local card shop even though it was nowhere near as desired by people i knew as were the orel hershiser and sid bream cards. at any rate, that ended once rivera was traded to the astros in the middle of the season.

look at that fernando card again and realize that in two years, donruss went from that terrible design to the design seen on john wetteland's 1992 card. i actually like 1992 donruss. i am not collecting it or anything like that, but it may well be my favorite donruss set behind 1984. others in the running are 1982 (and by default 1983, i guess) and 1981.  they even adopted the score approach to the card back and put a picture on there. they weren't known for showing full career stats on the back anyway, so why not cut down on all that text.

1992 was also the year that topps put photos on the backs of their flagship cards for the first time, but those were photos of stadiums. by the time 1995 rolled around, player photos on the backs were old hat, and as you can see on this 1995 topps rafael bournigal card, topps went with a couple of photos on the back.  i like the photo on the front best, however, as it features the lower rows of one of the dodger stadium pavilions in the background.

ricky horton's 1989 upper deck card also features a dodger stadium background, as does the picture on the back. i prefer the angle of the background on horton's 1989 topps card,

however.

last but definitely not least is ron cey's magnificent 1978 topps card. this was the first ron cey card i ever saw, and i pulled it from a 15-cent pack at a 7-11 one glorious day after school.  i had this card in my collection before i had steve garvey's card, and up until i saw the garv, this was my favorite card.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i don't think there were any other non-target set options at number 625 and 628, but here are a few cards that were considered but not chosen: 1970 topps don sutton

at number 622, 2014 topps chad billingsley at number 623, 1980 topps lerrin lagrow

at number 624, 1992 topps stadium club steve wilson at number 626, 1992 topps mike sharperson at number 627, 1998 upper deck paul konerko at number 629, and 1974 topps traded tommie agee

at number 630.

my favorite card on the page:

it's cey's card by a mile.

final thoughts:

steve garvey was my favorite player, but i had ron cey's sports illustrated poster hanging in my room. i also had his 1978 o-pee-chee card pinned on my wall.  cey and dusty baker once signed a program for me before a game at dodger stadium, and i put that program cover up on my wall, too.  i was a big fan of the penguin.

frankendodger sheet 67 (cards 595-603) - finally, a good morning from topps...

here's sheet number 67 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 595-603:

and the back:

these cards are:

595. 1970 topps maury wills
596. 1987 topps steve sax
597. 1990 score mike huff
598. 1991 upper deck mike sharperson
599. 2004 topps jose hernandez
600. 1988 score fernando valenzuela
601. 1985 topps tom lasorda
602. 2011 topps ivan dejesus jr
603. 1989 donruss mike devereaux

the "no brainer" of the day:

the first card issued by topps to officially feature maurice morning wills as a dodger was a sure thing for the set.

about the cards:

it is fairly widely accepted that maury wills was featured on a 1960 topps card

but he was not named. sy berger didn't regard wills as a prospect one spring and so will refused to sign with topps even as he won the 1962 mvp award. he was a big proponent of fleer and convinced a couple of his teammates to sign on for the 1963 set.  topps eventually was able to sign wills, and featured him by name for the first time in the 1967 set. he was a pirate by then, and had the dodgers not reacquired wills in 1969, we would not have had a dodger card issued by topps during his playing days.  topps did go back and create a 1962 card to feature in the 1975 mvp subset and 1982 kmart mvp set, but i did one better and created cards that should have been all the way back to 1959.

steve sax took over second base from davey lopes in 1982, and he made his first all-star team (as a reserve) that same year.  he was an all-star again in 1983, but this time was voted in by the fans to start at second base for the national league. topps didn't care, and featured johnny ray as the nl all-star at second base in 1984.  that's why i liked this 1987 topps card so much when it was released even though sax was a reserve in 1986 behind starter ryne sandberg. i didn't care that cubs fans were upset with topps  as long as i got my extra saxy card.

mike huff's 1990 score card was also appreciated by those of us team collectors who are completists. huff was shunned by donruss and topps (aside from an appearance in the 1990 topps debut '89 set) during his dodger tenure, receiving cards only from fleer, classic, and score.  huff (like homonym-ically named charlie hough) is also one of the relatively many hawaiian native players that played for the dodgers. others i can name off the top of my head are sid fernandez, carlos diaz, shane victorino, and onan masaoka.

hoo boy, do i like mike sharperson's 1991 upper deck card.  i wrote a post about how much i like it six years ago.  a day game in dodger stadium makes for great photos.

the most interesting thing about the 2004 topps jose hernandez card is that it shows some cards in the background. the most famous card with cars in the background is the 1973 topps luis alvarado card

that is at once a spectacle and a conundrum.  hernandez's card doesn't compare, but one does see the progression from muscle cars on the alvarado card to a yellow bug on dave goltz's 1981 topps card

to an suv on the hernandez card.

here we are at another hero number, and this time it's fernando valenzuela filling the spot with his 1988 score card.  that's good numbering by score, even though el toro was on the downside of his dodger career.  fernando somehow had an era under 4 (3.98) in 1987 despite leading the league in walks and hits allowed - he had a whip of 1.51!

next up is tom lasorda's 1985 topps card.  i think i would have liked 1985 topps better if all the cards had that position bar under the team name rather than having the position crammed in between the name text and logo.  i don't understand why topps did this because they could have shoehorned "mgr" in there like they fit some dual positions on other cards.

ivan dejesus jr got some love from topps in 2011 which was the year that he made his big league debut. the following season, the dodgers traded dejesus (just like they did with his dad).  these days, he's in cincinnati which was news to me.  i couldn't name more than two reds players, and one of those guys is now a met.

last card on the sheet belongs to dodger double dipper mike devereaux courtesy of 1989 donruss.  devereaux is probably best remembered as the 1995 nlcs mvp for the braves who beat the reds who had beat the dodgers in the nlds.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1993 upper deck eric davis

(another favorite) at number 595, 1992 pinnacle jim gott at number 596. 2009 topps randy wolf at number 597, 1991 donruss chris gwynn at number 598, 1989 score franklin stubbs at number 599, 2012 topps clayton kershaw (base)

(and photo variation)

at number 600, 2010 topps blake dewitt at number 601, 1986 topps mariano duncan at number 602, and 1990 upper deck kal daniels

at number 603.

my favorite card on the page:

i really like what the maury wills card represents, but mike sharperson's 1991 upper deck card is one of my favorite cards, period.

final thoughts:

there was a focus put on throwback uniforms by mlb this year - just a few weekends ago - and the dodgers participated by wearing brooklyn hats on the field.  i think there was a huge missed opportunity here given that 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance and that the club wore these uniforms that season

that would have been at least as interesting as those baby blues on the variant kershaw shown above.

frankendodger sheet 59 (cards 523-531) - diamondvision!...

here's sheet number 59 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 523-531:

and the back:

these cards are:

523. 1985 topps candy maldonado
524. 1994 upper deck collector's choice delino deshields
525. 1988 donruss jeff hamilton
526. 1993 topps mike sharperson
527. 1991 score pat perry
528. 1993 topps stadium club eric karros
529. 1994 fleer steve wilson
530. 2001 topps carlos perez
531. 2008 topps hiroki kuroda

the "no brainer" of the day:

i don't think i can stretch any of these cards into being any sort of a no brainer. sorry.

about the cards:

candy maldonado was one of the dodger prospects that i was really excited about in the early 1980's, along with mike marshall, greg brock, and even ted power.  unfortunately, maldonado didn't do as well at the big league level as i had hoped, and this 1985 topps card came from his last season as a dodger.  he did carve out a decent career, however, making it to the world series in 1989 with the giants and winning a ring with the 1992 blue jays.

delino deshields joined the dodgers in 1994 after he was traded by the expos for pedro martinez. by all accounts, deshields was shaken by the trade, and i could understand why given the talent on the expos at that time.  his time with the dodgers is often looked at with the benefit of hindsight, but i maintain that i was not upset by the trade. deshields was 25 with four full seasons behind him, including an all-star selection, when the dodgers traded for him. my hope was that he would stem the tide of stop-gap second basemen that the dodgers had employed following the departure of steve sax, and i really thought that deshields was the guy. if not for injuries and the incredible success of pedro (which had to be a burden on him), who knows what might have happened as deshields did have a couple of good seasons after leaving los angeles.

jeff hamilton's 1988 donruss card gives us a peek of the left field pavilion and the diamondvision screen that was installed in dodger stadium in 1980.  it was the first of its kind, and while the video element of the screen debuted at the all-star game, the dodgers tested still images on the screen throughout the first part of the season. i know this because a young gcrl was featured on the screen wearing a dodger helmet and steve garvey jersey during a game.  unfortunately, my dad couldn't get to his camera in time to capture the moment.

they also serve, those who sit and wait.  vin scully is good for that phrase once or twice a season, and it certainly applied to mike sharperson. i think his 1993 topps card is a good representation of the utlity player/pinch-hitter which was sharperson's role for most of his career.  when he did play regularly in 1992, he made the all-star team as the representative of the worst los angeles dodger team in history.

pat perry's 1991 score card features the blue border which works so well for dodger cards, but the cropping of the photo falls just short of the excellence displayed on tim crews' 1989 donruss card. we do get more palm tree trunk, however.

it was a cloudy day in vero beach when the photo for eric karros' 1993 topps stadium club card was taken. sometimes cloudy skies lend themselves to good lighting and dramatic photos. this was not one of those times.

steve wilson is wearing the same sort of pullover on his 1994 fleer card that sharperson has on his '93 topps card. wilson joined the dodgers during the 1991 season and pitched really well in his 11 games that followed - he did not give up a run, nor did he allow any of the 16 runners he inherited to score.  the dodgers kept him around for two more seasons which were his last in the bigs, meaning that this card is a final tribute.

you are probably well aware of how much i liked the murals that the dodgers put on their outfield wall during the late 1990's and early 2000's, and even more so how much i like when those murals show up on baseball cards.  the angels also put murals up in 2000, and this 2001 topps carlos perez card shows a bit of them in the background, along with the disney-fied fake rocks beyond the fence.  i'm not sure what the purpose of the murals were - it's not the team's hall of fame because bob boone is up there - but i think that the players in the background include nolan ryan and boone based on what appears on garret anderson's 2001 topps card.

today's final card is a 2008 topps hiroki kuroda. 2008 topps is not one of my favorite designs, but topps did issue a 55-card set of dodgers that year (a set that included coaches!), so i'll give it a pass.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some cards that came close to making the set include 1975 topps tom paciorek at number 523, 1991 upper deck orel hershiser

at number 524, 1988 fleer mike sharperson at number 525, 1979 topps dodger team/tom lasorda

at number 526, 1980 topps doug rau at number 527, 1993 pinnacle roger mcdowell at number 528, 1988 fleer bob welch at number 529, 1981 topps steve garvey (!)

at number 530, and 1994 upper deck todd hollandsworth at number 531.

my favorite card on the page:

it's not dodger stadium, but i do like the 2001 carlos perez card mostly because of the background.

final thoughts:

i neglected to mention that delino deshields is wearing a mask on his 1994 collector's choice card, following an accident in the batting cage during spring training that left him with a broken cheekbone.  i believe giancarlo stanton is the most recent big leaguer to wear some sort of facial protection, although i am pretty sure that jason heyward wears a helmet extension to cover his jaw, too.  i recall dave parker and ellis valentine wearing football style masks at the plate in the late 1970's, but i don't think any of them wore anything in the field like deshields is doing.

frankendodger sheet 39 (cards 343-351) - with my favorite card...

here's sheet number 39 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 343-351:

and the back:

these cards are:

343. 1985 topps bill russell
344. 1991 leaf alfredo griffin
345. 2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra
346. 1967 topps jim hickman
347. 1978 topps terry forster
348. 1996 topps stadium club ismael valdes
349. 1986 o-pee-chee ken howell
350. 1978 topps steve garvey
351. 2016 topps chase utley

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card. duh.

about the cards:

i am still not a fan of the 1985 topps design, but there is nothing to be done about it.  bill russell gets listed as a shortstop by topps, and that's fair; however, he was playing less and less time there and more in the outfield.  in '85, russell played almost as much outfield as he did short, and somewhat surprisingly, topps listed him as "ss-of" on his 1986 card.  credit where credit is due.

i don't think i bought any packs of 1990 or 1991 or even 1992 leaf in real time. i did buy a lot of '93 leaf, though.  anyway, this alfredo griffin card most likely didn't enter my collection until the mid-2000's or later. griffin is/was one in a long line of shortstops to try to fill russell's cleats.  he was able to join russell as a world champion dodger shortstop, which is a fairly exclusive club.

nomar garciaparra, somewhat surprisingly, did not play shortstop for the dodgers at all until his third and final season with the club.  his 2006 season was better than could have reasonably been expected, which made the next two tougher to take.  i remember watching some of his last at bats with the dodgers during the 2008 playoffs and cringing a bit.  still, i wish there were more nomar as a dodger cards, and i am happy that upper deck made two cards per player in their 2007 set.

jim hickman was only with the dodgers in 1967 as a result of a trade with the mets that occurred on november 22, 1966, so i am thankful that topps had hickman in a later series and was able to show him as a dodger. he had much greater success later in his career with the cubs (his 1970 season was pretty darn good - 32 homers, 115 rbi, .305 average), but perhaps the highlight of his career occurred while wearing dodger blue.  hickman, an outfielder by trade, played a bit in the infield as well, but was called upon to pitch the last 2 innings of a game against the giants in june of 1967.  he faced just 7 batters and allowed 2 hits (one batter singled but was thrown out at second going for a double).  one of those hits was a home run by willie mays.  i think that would be a pretty good story for the grandchildren.

like hickman, terry forster was acquired by the dodgers on november 22.  that was in 1977, however, and was also early enough in the card production process for forster's photo to be airbrushed and have his team affiliation switched from the pirates to the dodgers despite the lack of multiple card series.  i am guessing that the checklist was already set, however, as i see it as an anomaly for topps to put two cards featuring players from the same team so close together in the set back then.  my point being that forster's card was supposed to be a pirate card.  as far as i can tell, the cutoff point for team changes was december 3, 1977.  that was the day that ron schueler signed with the white sox - the team that he is affiliated with in the 1978 topps set - and two days before bobby bonds was traded by the angels (with whom bonds is affiliated in the set) to the white sox.  thank goodness for o-pee-chee!

it would have been nice of topps to crop the photo on ismael valdes' 1996 stadium club card just a little bit differently so that it would appear that he was striding over the stadium club logo as if it were lava.  ken howell's 1986 o-pee-chee card is pretty much a non-event. it looks like the photographer is standing between howell and wherever it is howell would rather be.

for my money, the 1978 topps steve garvey card is the greatest card ever made.  not objectively, but subjectively anyway.  i think it is the perfect baseball card. to pull this card from a pack in 1978 while living in dodger territory was just about the best thing i could hope for as a seven year old collector.

finally, chase utley represents 2016 topps in the set. i was surprised utley was re-signed by the dodgers for 2016, but he's played fairly well.  sooner or later, however, the dodgers will need to get second base figured out for the long term. this was the first 2016 card to be added to the set, and was later joined by the walter o'malley card from panini seen earlier on. i think i will probably add another. we'll see.

cards that didn't make the cut:

a couple of these cards had no chance to make the set, but they were still options:  1994 topps finest pedro astacio at number 343, 1961 topps sandy koufax at number 344, 1977 topps reggie smith

at number 345, 1993 o-pee-chee mike sharperson at number 346, 1979 topps doug rau

at number 347, 1962 topps larry burright

at number 348, 2000 upper deck victory eric gagne at number 349, 2015 topps yasiel puig at number 350, and 1979 o-pee-chee bill north at number 351.

my favorite card on the page:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card, which is also my favorite card of all time.

final thoughts:

i am not completely comfortable with two 1978 topps cards on the same page, but that is what i chose when putting this thing together.  i want terry forster in the set; the 1978 topps dodgers pretty much get preference over other cards in the set; and there was no way that garvey's card wasn't making it.  i blame topps for putting two dodgers so close together on the checklist - even if one of the cards was certainly a pirate card when the checklist was being developed.

frankendodger sheet 33 (cards 289-297) - with the card i most recently replaced...

here's sheet number 33 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 289-297:

and the back:

these cards are:

289. 1974 topps rick auerbach
290. 1980 topps steve garvey
291. 1985 topps bob welch
292. 2000 skybox dominion eric gagne/jeff williams
293. 2003 topps franklin gutierrez
294. 1975 topps geoff zahn
295. 1963 topps ed roebuck
296. 1985 donruss mike marshall
297. 2014 topps update zack greinke

the "no brainer" of the day:

it was the last card added to the sheet, but in hindsight it should have been the first.  that would be the 2003 topps franklin gutierrez card. i'll explain below.

about the cards:

when i started writing this post, this is what the sheet looked like:

at first, shane victorino's 2012 topps update card made the cut at 293, but i wasn't happy about it. victorino is on my short list of players that aren't my favorite.  not completely sure why, although he played well against the dodgers in the 2008 and 2009 nlcs.  at any rate, i was pleased to find a double of the gutierrez card among my 2003 dupes, and it was an easy decision to replace victorino in the center rectangle of the page.  the other cards remain unscathed.

rick auerbach came over from the brewers near the start of the 1973 season, but didn't suit up for the dodgers until 1974. it's a surprise that he got a card in the '74 set, but i'll take it.  auerbach hit .342 in 45 games for the dodgers in their pennant winning season, and then filled in for the injured bill russell for much of the 1975 campaign.  the 1980 topps design is a bit similar to that of 1974, and steve garvey's card has the added bonus of the all-star banner.  not my favorite garvey card, but we do get a look at his forearms front and center.

1985 topps may be my least favorite design of the decade.  at least for dodger cards.  look at bob welch's card - it's too cluttered and clunky at the bottom.  the fact that topps used the flying ball logo means that the card says 'dodgers dodgers' which is unnecessary.  plus, the position designation looks like it was shoehorned in.  not that the 2000 skybox dominion design is better as the names on the front of the card are difficult to read.  anyway, the card features two foreigners - eric gagne was born in montreal, and jeff williams was born in australia.  both debuted for the dodgers in september of 1999, but gagne outlasted williams who pitched in his final game during the 2002 season.

franklin gutierrez, another foreigner (venezuela), never did suit up for the dodgers during the regular season. he was traded in 2004 to the indians for milton bradley.  gutierrez was later traded to the mariners with whom he won a gold glove in 2007 and for whom he still plays today.

geoff zahn's 1975 topps card is pleasing to me not only because of the dodger stadium field level scoreboard that is visible behind him, but also because it reminds me that zahn was traded to the cubs early in the 1975 season for burt hooton.  nothing against zahn, but hooton was a big part of the team of my youth.  ed roebuck was a pretty solid reliever over 11 years in the majors. he pitched for the dodgers in the 1955 and 1956 world series, but missed out on the 1959 season and world series.  roebuck was coming off of a 10-2 season in 1962 when this card was released, but he was dealt to the senators during the '63 season for marv breeding who the dodgers kept off of their postseason roster en route to a sweep of the yankees in that year's fall classic.

we've seen 1985 leaf in the set already, but not 1985 donruss, so here's mike marshall.  i was still looking for superstardom from marshall at this point, and he had a good season in '85 with 28 homers, 95 rbi, and a .293 batting average, but his season was overshadowed by pedro guerrero's.  marshall also challenged the dodger single season strikeout record that year, but fell 12 short of billy grabarkewitz's then record of 149.  of course, marshall had about 75 fewer plate appearances.

the last card on the sheet is zack greinke's 2014 topps update all-star card.  that game was played at target field, and the hats the players wore were supposed to be a nod to the twinkies' batting helmets of the late 1970's.

the tradition continued in cincinnati last year,

and this year, the players will wear some sort of san diego padre abomination

(at least during the workout and hr derby).

cards that didn't make the cut:

along with victorino's card at number 293, some others that didn't receive the call include 1996 donruss chad fonville at number 289, 1979 topps davey lopes at number 290, 1986 topps tom lasorda

at number 291, 1960 topps dodger backstops (joe pignatano/john roseboro) at number 292, 1994 pinnacle darryl strawberry at number 294, 2013 topps brandon league at number 295, 1984 donruss greg brock

at number 296, and 2011 topps heritage jonathan broxton at number 297.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1975 topps geoff zahn card wins out over the others thanks to its dodger stadium background and red and blue border.

final thoughts:

victorino also had a dodger card in 2003 just like the guy who replaced him on this sheet, but, like gutierrez, victorino didn't appear for the dodgers at that time.