frankendodger sheet 53 (cards 469-477) - no piazzas, but two piazzas...

here's sheet number 53 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 469-477:

and the back:

these cards are:

469. 1992 fleer juan samuel
470. 1985 donruss sid bream
471. 1969 topps ted savage
472. 1995 score rafael bournigal
473. 1975 topps ken mcmullen
474. 1995 donruss todd worrell
475. 1987 donruss bob welch
476. 1991 leaf bob ojeda
477. 1982 topps steve yeager

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the closest thing to a no brainer would be the only topps dodger card of ted savage? otherwise, nothing really rises to the occasion here.

about the cards:

juan samuel, seen here on one of his last dodger cards (a 1992 fleer card) gave the dodgers a couple of decent years at second base, but failed to stop the turnstile at the position (he was released during the 1992 season) that began when steve sax left after the 1988 season. since then, the dodgers have had 17 different second basemen start on opening day- one more than the number of different opening day third basemen over the same span.

sid bream did not get a rated rookie card in the 1985 donruss set (tony brewer was the dodgers' rated rookie that year), as evidenced by the lack of the famous logo on his card above, but his cards were in high demand among young southern california collectors nonetheless.  i think that had a lot to do with how disappointed we were with greg brock. bream was traded to the pirates later in the '85 season for bill madlock.

now we are to the ted savage card from 1969 topps.  the card lists savage as a dodger (he had joined the club in april of '68 - thank goodness for cards issued in series rather than all at once), but uses a photo from his time with the pirates, which ended in 1964. in fact, this photo looks like it came from the same session as his 1967 card photo. that card lists him as a cub, but he is clearly wearing a pirates jersey.  i'm not complaining, mind you, as i appreciate topps at least getting the team name right on a midseason acquisition.

rafael bournigal didn't play a single game in the majors during the 1995 season, but he did get a few cards, including this one from score showing him and mike piazza sharing a post game high-five.  bournigal started the '95 season at albuquerque, but was traded to the expos in june and spent the rest of the season in their minor league system.  it was really weird to find out that, despite that trade, topps used him in their pre-production 1996 set.

i like to think that if things had aligned better, bournigal's nickname would have been 'jason' (no, i am not getting paid for that movie plug).

the 1975 topps ken mcmullen card is one of my least favorite dodger cards from the set due to the unsightly (in my opinion) color combination topps used. i could never be a cleveland browns fan, i guess.

next up is another card from 1995 featuring the dodger catcher and some postgame congrats. this time, it's closer todd worrell and his donruss card that makes way for the strongest man in socal to join him.  i don't know if this was a ploy by card companies, but i have seen quite a number of double play cards where the player sliding in (who is not the card subject) is a player of note.  as a now limited player collector, i don't mind.  if i still had a separate mike piazza player collection, things like this could get out of hand pretty quickly, as i include lurker and/or cameos in my pc's.

i do have a second copy of the 1987 donruss bob welch card in my dodger stadium binder, but i don't keep a second copy of the 1991 leaf bob ojeda card with my lurker mini-collection. that's because the lurker is a fellow dodger, and also because it's probably just alfredo griffin.  no offense, alfredo.

the final card of the page is a 1982 topps steve yeager card. i was hoping for some world series action on yeager's card (or any of the dodgers, frankly), but was disappointed.  it's just another shea stadium batter's box photo.

cards that didn't make the cut:

those cards not selected include 1993 topps dave hansen at number 469, 1988 score orel hershiser at number 470, 2007 topps heritage andre ethier at number 471, 1968 topps walter alston

at number 472, 2011 topps chad billingsley

at number 473, 1996 donruss karim garcia at number 474, 1988 donruss dave anderson at number 475, 1994 score mike piazza at number 476, and 1984 topps rafael landestoy

at number 477.

my favorite card on the page:

i like the bournigal card a wee bit more than the worrell card due to the high-five as opposed to the arm-wrestle handshake.

final thoughts:

looking at these cards, i am reminded that topps did not always put their logo on the front of their cards. take a look at the 1969 and 1975 cards, neither of which have the logo. the '69 has the logo on the back, but the '75 doesn't even have that.  contrast that with fleer, score, and leaf - and then there is donruss, who not only put their logo on the front, but also the year of the card (at least prior to 1995).  that was some revolutionary stuff back in 1981

when they began the trend.

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 34 (cards 298-306) - like a flamingo...

here's sheet number 34 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 298-306:

and the back:

these cards are:

298. 1972 topps claude osteen (in action)
299. 1987 donruss franklin stubbs
300. 2014 topps heritage clayton kershaw
301. 2003 donruss paul loduca
302. 1981 topps dodgers future stars (jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela)
303. 2011 topps update juan uribe
304. 1970 topps bill russell
305. 1958 topps clem labine
306. 2008 upper deck timeline russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1981 topps dodgers future stars card was one of the collection defining cards for me and my friends in 1981. it had to be in this set.

about the cards:

the local card shop where i grew up was both a card and comic store.  my brother, who read comics, and i would spend a lot of time there. one day we saw the 1972 topps claude osteen in action card and actually wondered if the guy had just one leg.  we found out that he did, in fact, have two legs, but we called this the flamingo card.  that was around the same time that we saw the 1971 topps brooks robinson card that we decided looked like he was searching for droids and the stolen death star plans on tatooine - the beginning of my tatooine collection.

we saw franklin stubbs' 1987 donruss opening day card early on in the set, but thankfully donruss used different photos for that set - something topps does a poor job of with their opening day release. now, the card above does show a confused looking stubbs as opposed to happy stubbs on the od card, but still, different photos.

here we are at the hero number.  i like that topps heritage often matches players/managers up with the same card numbers from the set being honored, and that is certainly the case here.  clayton kershaw gets number 300 in 2014 heritage, and sandy koufax was number 300 in the 1965 set.

i just wish they would match the pose, too.  kershaw's card uses a photo that makes me think the photographer just yelled "hey, clayton - over here!" and then snapped the photo.

not much to say about the 2003 donruss paul loduca card, so let's move on to the jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela rookie.  back in 1981, me and my friends were skeptical of fleer and donruss - topps was usually the priority for pack busting.  still, we bought a fair amount of the others, although most of my donruss cards that year came from buying a brick of dodger cards from a fellow collector.  anyway, fleer didn't even spell fernando's name correctly and donruss didn't bother to include him in their set, so it was topps all the way if you wanted to flaunt a fernando rookie.  throw in sweaty mike scioscia, and it was the card to have as fernandomania took over.  love this card.

i appreciate topps using a photo of juan uribe in the baby blue throwbacks for his 2011 update card. i still think the dodgers should have worn the 1916 checkered uniforms of the robins this season - it is the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance, after all.  i also appreciate topps giving outfielder bill russell a card of his own in 1970.  he did play in 98 games for the dodgers in 1969, but with topps putting bill buckner (one game in 1969) over steve garvey (three games in 1969), one is never certain of the criteria for inclusion in a set.

the photo and hat positioning on clem labine's 1958 topps card give the impression that he had a very long cranium.  not 1988 o-pee-chee delino deshields long, but long nonetheless.  finally we have a russell martin card from the 2008 upper deck timeline set - specifically the subset that pays homage to the 2004 legends set.  four years is pretty quick to re-use a design, but i don't mind since i am a fan of the timeless teams set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

aside from the 1965 topps koufax card at the hero number 300, here are some other cards that could have been included but weren't:  1961 topps jim golden

at number 298, 1988 donruss mickey hatcher

at number 299, 1981 donruss jay johnstone at number 300, 1958 topps randy jackson at number 301, 1980 topps dodgers team card at number 302, 1994 leaf ramon martinez at number 303, 1992 bowman jose offerman at number 304, steve garvey's newest card (from 2016 topps archives)

at number 305, and 1984 topps dodgers batting & pitching leaders (pedro guerrero/bob welch) at number 306.

my favorite card on the page:

some tough competition, and bill russell's rookie card falls just short of the perconte/scioscia/valenzuela card - perhaps my favorite multi-player rookie card ever.

final thoughts:

including garvey in this year's archives release, as a short print no less, follows the trend. in 2013, dave lopes got the sp treatment with a 1976 style card.  the following year, it was bill russell's turn with a 1973 card (auto'd only).  last year i was expecting the garv, but eric karros and shawn green got the call for the auto only insert set instead.  here's hoping the penguin shows up in 2017.

in other archives related news, i've entered a couple of contests over at sport card collectors.  one is archives related, and the other is a sports challenge contest - both with some great prizes.  check them out!