frankendodger sheet 78 (cards 694-702) - manny being a hero...

here's sheet number 78 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 694-702:

and the back:

these cards are:

694. 1978 topps elias sosa
695. 1980 topps reggie smith
696. 1986 topps bill russell
697. 1990 topps mike davis
698. 1988 topps brad havens
699. 2001 topps chad kreuter
700. 2009 upper deck manny ramirez
701. 1990 upper deck jim gott
702. 1992 fleer brett butler

the "no brainer" of the day:

reggie smith's 1980 topps card is one of the first cards i think of when i think of cards from that set.  i first saw this card when i pulled it from a pack in downtown los angeles after a trip to a convenience store following a day of accompanying my dad to some work related meetings.

about the cards:

elias sosa brings us the last card from the 1978 topps set to make the frankenset.  sosa was no longer a dodger in 1978, but his card from that year is a good one.

one more note about the 1980 topps reggie smith card - the facsimile autograph is pretty high up on the image, thanks to the dark background of the dugout behind him. this is another reason that i am not a fan of the autos on base cards.

i thought that topps' decision in 1986 to put the "dean" of the team on the front of the team leader cards was a good one.  of course, i was a dodger fan, and that meant that bill russell was on the front instead of pedro guerrero and orel hershiser, who would have been there had topps followed the model of their 1982, 1983, and 1984 sets.  seeing petey and orel would have been ok, too, don't get me wrong, but bill russell had never had a second card in a set before.  i would like to note that two other members of the team of my youth were featured on these cards - charlie hough

and rick rhoden

which is kind of crazy if you think about what kind of turnover there had to have been in texas and pittsburgh for these two guys to be considered the longest tenured players on the team.

i had mentioned in a post a few years ago that i had a number of duplicates of mike davis' 1990 topps card, so one of them made the frankenset.  i still don't care too much for 1990 topps, although i don't think it is my least favorite topps set ever as i had mentioned in that post, and the davis card with the blue border actually looks pretty good.  if only all the dodger cards had that border...

...dodgers shouldn't have orange borders.

brad havens and his 1988 topps card mark the first appearance in the set for the dodger reliever who had the misfortune of being released by the team during the 1988 season.  there's not a lot to say about his dodger tenure, so i will use havens' last name to ask if anyone else is sick of all of the pun related headlines at mlb.com.  it is ridiculous.  look at this recent one.

babe truth.  like i said, ridiculous. were havens pitching today (and doing something headline worthy) we would be bombarded with things like "havens a blast - dodger pitcher closese the door against the braves" or "safe havens - dodger pitcher beats out bunt attempt to prolong inning".  puns should be left for blog post titles.

next up is chad kreuter's 2001 topps card which features a photo of him on the back without a hat which makes sense after what happened that day in wrigley.

now we come to the final 'hero number' in the frankenset, 700, and manny ramirez with his 2009 upper deck card gets the call.  manny's numbers for the dodgers in 2008 certainly qualify for the hero treatment: .396/.489/.743 with 17 homers and 53 rbi in 53 games for the blue after the trade with the red sox (and pirates). he was even better in the postseason, going .500/.643/1.100 with 2 homers in the nlds against the cubs and .533/.682/1.067 with 2 more homers against the phillies in the nlcs.  i really thought after loney's grand slam in the nlds that the dodgers were going to win it all in 2008.  in fact, it was the excitement following the arrival of manny ramirez that made me want to start a blog, and the explosion of the card-centric blogs at the time sealed the deal for me.  so, blame manny for all of this if you so desire.

jim gott is back with his 1991 upper deck card this time.  gott seemed like a good guy from the photos used on his cards.  he was either pitching or smiling.

for the most part, anyway.

or doing hapkido.  so, just sometimes smiling. still seemed like a good dude.

the last card on the sheet is one of those fleer superstar special subset cards from the back end of their sets. this one is from 1992 and features the dodgers' brett butler and paul molitor of the brewers - aka 'the ignitors'.  molly was once my favorite non-dodger and i am ok with him being an honorary member of the frankenset.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1979 topps burt hooton

at number 694, 2015 topps heritage (high number) alex guerrero at number 695, 1991 donruss darryl strawberry at number 696, 1994 topps dave hansen

at number 697, 2002 upper deck 40 man terry mulholland at number 698, 1987 topps ken landreaux at number 699, 2002 upper deck 40 man steve colyer at number 700, 2009 upper deck danny ardoin

at number 701, and 2009 upper deck orlando hudson at number 702.

my favorite card on the page:

it's tough to choose between a 1978 topps dodger card, a reggie smith dodger card, and a bill russell card, but i'm a fan of the infield at heart, and a card recognizing russell for being a dodger for a long time wins out over the others.

final thoughts:

this set is into the home stretch now that we've hit the 700s.  only three more sheets to go until the end, and there are fewer and fewer sets to choose cards from.  we'll be seeing 2009 upper deck and the 1990 target set again, for sure.

frankendodger sheet 74 (cards 658-666) - let's find out which upper deck number of the beast makes the set...

here's sheet number 74 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 658-666:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 663 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number 74; front and back]

these cards are:

658. 1994 upper deck collector's choice todd hollandsworth
659. 1990 target jerry reuss
660. 1976 topps dave lopes
661. 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu
662. 1998 donruss collections preferred wilton guerrero
663. 1990 target paul richards2020 topps heritage high numbers alex wood
664. 1987 topps mike marshall
665. 1990 topps sandy koufax
666. 1989 upper deck kirk gibson

the "no brainer" of the day:

i knew that number 666 was going to be an upper deck card, and of the seven i had to choose from, the gibby was a no brainer.

about the cards:

upper deck was already over raul mondesi when they launched their collector's choice brand in 1994. while mondesi would go on to win the rookie of the year award that season, he had just a regular card in the set, and todd hollandsworth got this rookie class subset card instead.  holly would win the rookie of the year award two years later, but by then upper deck was all about karim garcia and wilton guerrero as far as dodger rookies were concerned.

it's time for another card from the 1990 target set to fill a hole. this time, it's friend of the blogging community jerry reuss.  i remember reading about reuss playing in a men's amateur baseball league following his retirement, but he was not allowed to pitch.  i played in a men's league for a few years and faced a few former minor league pitchers, and i can definitely understand amateurs not wanting to face a former big leaguer - the minor leaguers were tough enough.  i should point out that there was a card that i could have put here, but it is not the best (it's a plain fleer checklist), and knowing that reuss's target card was number 659, i chose reuss even though it puts two cards from target on this sheet.

this next card is, i believe, the final card of one of the infielders in this set. it's davey lopes's 1976 topps card.  there are no italics on the back of the card, but if there were, the stolen base totals for 1975 and 1976 would be italicized to denote the fact that lopes led the league in both of those seasons.  he finished third a couple of times later on, but never regained the top spot.  for his career, lopes ranks 26th all-time in steals and it looks to be a while before anyone bumps him to 27th.

hyun-jin ryu brings one of his multitude of 2013 topps cards to the set at number 661. this is the base version - i think there are three or four different photos for this card. it's nonsense, but i believe i have them all. i didn't pay much, but they should be even cheaper now with ryu having been injured for so long. i no longer actively chase photo variations, but may wind up getting a couple of the '42' variations in 2016 topps series 2.

1998 donruss collections returns with a preferred wilton guerrero card.  once again, these are just retooled cards from regular donruss issues, with all releases put into one set.  you have to look closely for the actual card number - it's not the number in the top corner, it's down below.

where i had an option at 659, there was no other alternative at 663 than a target card.  this one doesn't even feature a guy in a dodger uniform, as paul richards is shown in what i believe to be a white sox uniform (richards was their manager in the early 1950's and then again in 1976).  in fact, richards appeared in only three games for the 1932 brooklyn dodgers going 0 for 8 at the plate. he played for three other teams in the majors, with the last being the tigers in 1946. happy to have alex wood show up at 663 so that i could remove paul richards and his non-dodger uniform from the set. i was also happy to see wood return to the dodgers and help them win the 2020 fall classic. wood's photo here shows a bit of the 2020 all-star game patch that the dodgers wore during spring training prior to the pandemic.

mike marshall's 1987 topps card reminds me that his offensive production took a big step backwards in 1986.  he had hit 28 homers, driven in 95 runs, and posted a .293 average in 1985 - not on par with his minor league numbers, but still headed in the right direction.  in 1986, however, his average dropped by 60 points, and he played in 30 fewer games.  he rebounded a bit in 1987, getting his average back up to .294, but he never did get his slugging percentage back up to where it had been in 1985.  he had a reputation for not playing hurt, but for me, all that was forgotten with the 1988 world series and marshall's 3-run homer in game 2 to turn a 2-0 lead into 5-0 in the third inning.

it was a nice thing when topps started using old cards for the turn back the clock subsets in the late 1980's, and in 1990 we were treated to sandy koufax's 1965 card. at the time, i figured it was probably the only way that i would have that card in my collection, but i am happy to say that i was wrong.

still need one for the '65 set, though.

last card on the sheet is one of kirk gibson's 1989 upper deck cards. this one features him on his way to first base after hitting his walk-off home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series.  young gcrl is out there in the right field pavilion losing his mind and trying to take some pictures.  astute upper deck collectors noticed over the next few years that it was always a dodger at number 666 in the upper deck sets, and it was no coincidence as revealed in the 'card sharks' book. the guy who set the checklist for upper deck was a giants fan.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1974 topps lee lacy at number 658, 1988 fleer checklist at number 659, 1992 topps stadium club eric davis at number 660, 1983 topps bill russell

at number 661, 1989 upper deck kirk gibson at number 662, 1990 donruss alejandro pena at number 664, 1986 topps alejandro pena at number 665, and several upper deck flagship cards from 1990 through 1993,

and then again in 2002 and 2006

at number 666.

my favorite card on the page:

it's either the lopes or the gibson, and i have to go with world series heroics over the second baseman of the team of my youth.

final thoughts:

two of these cards are the last cards in their respective set - the 1976 topps lopes and the 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu - which drives home the point that there are not very many sets left to choose cards from. i didn't realize in 1978 that it was the first year for the 726 card set size. had i really started collecting in 1977 (i was given my first pack of cards that year), this frankenset would have ended with davey lopes up there.  as it is, we get a few more pages.

frankendodger sheet 48 (cards 424-432) - what's your name man?...

here's sheet number 48 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 424-432:

and the back:

these cards are:

424. 1996 donruss mike piazza
425. 1983 topps pedro guerrero
426. 1990 topps jeff hamilton
427. 1970 topps fred norman
428. 2003 upper deck fred mcgriff
429. 1961 nu-cards baseball scoops roy campanella
430. 1996 fleer john cummings
431. 2007 topps luis gonzalez
432. 1995 bowman chan ho park

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are no iconic cards on this page, but there are a couple of 'one and done' type cards. i'll go with fred norman's lone dodger card as the one the was a lock for the set.

about the cards:

1996 donruss leads off with their 'black box' design. not one of my favorites. still, this is a mike piazza dodger card, and that's a good thing.  piazza goes into the hall of fame later this month, and i guess i expected to see more piazza cards this year as a result.  there have been some - and even some showing him as a dodger - but i figured there would be more.

i was happy to find this 1983 topps pedro guerrero card in a pack back then because topps had given us two and a third cards of petey using photos of him sitting or standing around.  with everything he was doing on the field, i was looking for an action shot.  plus, there are no worse cards than the 1983 topps cards where both pictures - the main one and the inset - are posed.

to topps' credit, they did a pretty good job avoiding too many cards like the vicente romo above - at least among the dodgers.

i think night owl is the one who referred to the 1990 topps set as the 'lichtenstein' set.  this helped me appreciate the set so much more.  i'm being serious.  jeff hamilton, on the other hand, is still not one of my favorite dodgers, but he did catch the last out of game 4 of the 1988 world series, so i have some appreciation for him.

the first several times i saw fred norman's 1970 topps card, i figured that the interlocking 'la' logo on his had was akin to an iron on patch due to the vertical line running to its left.  it was quite a while before i noticed that the topps artists had left norman in some other team's (i'm guessing it is a spokane indians jersey - norman played for them in 1967 and 1969) jersey (notice the red patchwork just above the 'pitcher' text) and that his had was colored blue with the 'la' logo being cut and pasted from someone else's photo. it's the only card of norman as a dodger other than his 1990 target card

as he was plucked off of waivers by the cardinals during the 1970 season.

kudos to upper deck for making this 2003 fred mcgriff card.  the horizontal layout works nicely with his crouch and the strata of seats in holman stadium. it is my favorite card of mcgriff as a dodger.

it's getting late in the set to be showing an oddball for the first time, but luckily the 1961 nu-cards baseball scoops set was huge.  this is one of a few dodger cards in the set, and it celebrates roy campanella's 1953 season in which he set new records for home runs, rbi, and putouts for catchers and was rewarded with the mvp award for his efforts.

john cummings joined the dodgers during the 1995 season and pitched often enough to show up in the 1996 fleer set.  he had debuted with the mariners in 1993 after making the jump straight from triple-a, and for five innings, he was fantastic.  he had allowed just one hit (a double by cal ripken jr) through and had a 2-0 lead over the orioles in his first big league appearance before allowing five straight hits to start the sixth inning before being pulled. he was used solely as a reliever with the dodgers, and was with the club for about a year before being traded to the tigers.

luis gonzalez joined the dodgers for the 2007 season and was given this card in the topps flagship set. i am happy to report that gonzalez's 2008 topps card showed him as a marlin.  i appreciated gonzalez for getting the series winning hit against the yankees in the 2001 fall classic, but he is on the short list of my least favorite dodgers. it has more to do with him being brought in and blocking matt kemp from getting more playing time early in the season, and then complaining when kemp did play more often later in the year.  with gonzalez gone, i was expecting a full season of an ethier/pierre/kemp outfield, but ned colletti then went out and brought in andruw jones in 2008.

1995 bowman was released on the heels of 1994 upper deck (one of my favorite upper deck sets), and one couldn't help but notice the similarities between the two designs due to the 'phantom zone' inset photo.

as a result, i've had a bit of an aversion to 1995 bowman except for dodger cards like this chan ho park.

cards that didn't make the cut:

honorable mentions go to the cards that fell short, including 1991 topps stadium club gary carter at number 424, 1984 topps steve howe at number 425, 1994 topps finest chan ho park at number 426, 2007 topps randy wolf

at number 427, 1988 topps john shelby at number 428, 2003 upper deck joe thurston

at number 429, 1971 topps wes parker at number 430, 1987 topps dodgers leaders (although not the one i have signed by ron perranoski)

at number 431, and 1989 donruss rick dempsey at number 432.

my favorite card on the page:

it was nice to finally have an action photo on a topps pedro guerrero card, and the mcgriff card is nice, but oddball roy campanella is my favorite card on this page.

final thoughts:

have you seen hamilton? not jeff hamilton - hamilton the musical (the title of this post refers to the opening number where the characters are introduced).  i was lucky enough to see it last year while in new york for a conference. it was fantastic. in a few days, the show's creator lin-manuel miranda (who plays alexander hamilton - the ten-dollar founding father) will leave the production, and i am very interested to see what he does next.  as for me, i've got about 33 more of these posts to go, and i'm not sure what comes after that.