frankendodger sheet 40 (cards 352-360) - bookended by a pair of 31 hall of famers...

i've updated this page since the original post ran.

here's sheet number 40 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 352-360:

and the back:

here's what the page originally looked like:

these cards are:

352. 2001 topps archives hoyt wilhelm
353. 1992 classic best ken huckaby 1994 pinnacle ramon martinez
354. 2005 donruss diamond kings kazuhisa ishii
355. 1994 upper deck orel hershiser
356. 1989 score jesse orosco
357. 2012 topps aaron harang
358. 1962 topps tommy davis
359. 2003 topps chrome dave roberts
360. 1996 upper deck mike piazza

the "no brainer" of the day:

hoyt wilhelm has just one card from his playing days as a dodger, and it's his 1972 topps card.  this reprint of that card issued as part of the 2001 topps archives set was a no brainer to make the set.

about the cards:

another thing about the wilhelm card, his 1972 topps card was numbered 777 (as you can see in the above scan) which puts it outside the parameters of this set.  so, i was happy that the archives reprint numbered it at 352.  i won't blow up the back of the card to show you the number as i did with the 1952 jackie robinson reprint from the same set - you'll just have to trust me.  wilhelm made his debut in 1952 against the dodgers, facing pee wee reese, billy cox, roy campanella, jackie robinson, and duke snider in his initial inning of work, and finished his hall of fame career as a dodger 20 years later. in between, he appeared in a record 1,070 games as a pitcher. as implied by the title of this post, wilhelm wore number 31 during his stint as a dodger.

ken huckaby was a dodger catching prospect who was in the dodger organization through the 1997 season. he didn't make his big league debut until 2001, nine years after this 1992 classic best minor league card was issued.  he never suited up for the dodgers, but i like this card and the holman stadium seats in the background.  really, the only criteria for a card being eligible for this set is that its number is less than 727 and it be considered a dodger card.  huckaby's card meets both.

ken huckaby's 1992 classic best card has given way to ramon martinez's 1994 pinnacle card. aside from being a major league card of a player that actually played for the dodgers, it features a fairly unique photo of martinez studying a slide. it also makes the top two rows of the sheet an exclusively pitcher's zone.

kaz ishii was no longer with the dodgers when this 2005 diamond kings card came out, having been traded to the mets for jason phillips straight up.  ishii went 13-8 in 2004, his third season with the dodgers, but his era had jumped almost a full run to 4.71, and his k/9 ratio had gone from just under 9 to just over 5.  it was time to cut bait.

while ishii was banished to flushing meadows, the 1994 upper deck set banished players to the phantom zone with the skewed photo on the side bar.  bowman used a similar technique in their 1995 set, but upper deck does it better.  i liked this set a lot and it was the first upper deck set that i set out to complete.  it was also the smallest upper deck set to date.  anyway, i really like the hershiser card here because it features the old corrugated fiberglass walls of the dodger stadium bullpens that my brother and i used to stand above and watch the likes of don sutton, burt hooton, and (far too often) doug rau warm up before games.  i mean that it seemed like rau was the starting pitcher for a lot of the games we attended, not that he was used too often.

speaking of being used often, jesse orosco who appears here on a 1989 score card currently holds the record for most games pitched at 1,252.  he wasn't the one who broke wilhelm's record (that was dennis eckersley who pitched in 1,071 games), but he sure did pass it. the closest active pitcher is francisco rodriguez, who has appeared in 887 games.  aaron harang appeared in only 387 games during his career which may or may not have ended last season, and only 6 of those appearances were in relief.  we were given this 2012 topps card during his 10-10 season with the dodgers in 2011 (his only season with the dodgers).  in his second start for the club, harang set a dodger record by striking out 9 consecutive batters. he k'd 13 total that night, and dodger pitchers tied a team record for a ninie inning game by striking out their opponent 18 times.  of course, they almost lost the game.

tommy davis's 1962 topps card is one of my favorite dodgers from the set, due in large part to the way his pose fits the image space.  speaking of which, he's got the same pose as gino cimoli had on his 1958 topps card, but topps let davis keep his bat.  as an aside, i am ashamed to mention how long it took me to really look at the 1962 design and see that it was supposed to reflect a rectangular photo posted on a piece of wood (fence?). i had not noticed the curl as part of the image until the late 1990's.

the page's penultimate card features the current dodger manager not looking at his base coach while running on a 2003 topps chrome card.  that's ok because it looks like the play is in front of him, and we all know that dave roberts was ok on the basepaths.  the final card features one of this year's hall of fame inductees taking a cut on his 1996 upper deck card.  again, as the title of the post implies, mike piazza wore the same number as hoyt wilhelm, 31.  this is not the first time that two hall of famers wore the same number for the dodgers (both frank robinson and greg maddux wore number 36, for example), but the number still won't be retired by the club until joc pederson gets voted in to the hall.  hey, it could happen.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1983 topps mike scioscia at number 352, 1992 classic best ken huckaby

at number 353, 1996 upper deck ramon martinez at number 354, 2007 upper deck chad billingsley at number 355, 1991 upper deck jose offerman at number 356, 1991 score jim poole

at number 357, 1997 fleer roger cedeno at number 358, 2005 topps chrome jd drew at number 359, and 2005 upper deck jayson werth

at number 360.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1994 upper deck hershiser card wins for this page, thanks to the blue bullpen background and despite the phantom zone card design.

final thoughts:

looking at this sheet now, i am pretty sure that huckaby is not long for the set.  as i mentioned above, pretty much the only requisite to be eligible for this set is to be on a card that is considered a dodger card, and while the huckaby card fits that description as far as i am concerned, there will likely be a change. not that i am opposed to minor league sets - they are part of my dodger collection, after all - but that pinnacle martinez card is a pretty good one.

yep, so good that i've made the switch from huckaby to martinez.

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.

frankendodger sheet 23 (cards 199-207) - all decades reporting for duty...

here's sheet number 23 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 199-207:

and the back:

these cards are:

199. 1977 o-pee-chee ron cey
200. 1964 topps sandy koufax
201. 1982 donruss steve yeager
202. 2014 topps chrome matt kemp
203. 1990 donruss jay howell
204. 2001 topps archives tom lasorda
205. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams steve garvey
206. 1959 topps carl furillo
207. 1971 topps alan foster

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 2001 archives lasorda card.  his 1988 topps card is one of my top 3 favorite lasorda cards (along with 1992 topps and 1978 topps), but it didn't make the cut earlier in the set.  so, the archives card that reprints the '88 card was a no brainer once the no repeat players/sets guideline expired.

about the cards:

i'm pretty sure that this is the first sheet that includes cards from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and 10's.  and they are all pretty good, too.  leading off with ron cey's 1977 opc card, and following that up with sandy koufax's 1964 topps card? that's a great start.  i thought that the hero numbers should be well represented in this set, and although clayton kershaw's 2013 topps heritage card was also number 200, i decided to go with the original, so to speak. so, i purchased a second '64 koufax for my collection.  and, while i may go back and replace matt kemp at number 100 with hubie brooks (i've got that bowman card in my sportlots cart as i type), sandy won't be going anywhere.

i could have used either a 1982 donruss or 1983 donruss yeager card

at 201, and i went for yeager at the plate rather than yeager behind it.  the photo is similar to the one on cey's card - so much so that i wonder if the top of the dugout was painted sometime between 1976 and 1981, so that both photos were taken in the same (shea?) stadium.  matt kemp's 2014 topps chrome card features a nice photo with the red number prominently displayed, but it's jay howell's 1990 donruss card that really makes the red pop.

i already mentioned that i like tommy's card, so i'll move on to the garvey from the timeless teams set.  i am a fan of this set to be sure, and this is one of my favorite cards in it because upper deck matched the photo with the year, which is nice.  from one number 6 to another, and from dodger stadium to the la coliseum, we have carl furillo's 1959 topps card. i've seen a few football games at the coliseum, but did not make it to the exhibition game the dodgers played there a few years ago.  i do recall sitting there during the football games trying to imagine it as a baseball stadium and couldn't really figure it out even though i had seen photos of the conversion.  anyway, the rams will be playing there for a couple of years, and i kind of hope the stadium falls apart on them.  this coming from a guy who was a big fan of the rams until they traded vince ferragamo to the bills in '85.  i thought georgia frontiere was a bad owner. that kroenke guy seems like a real jackass.

apologies to alan foster for bringing up kroenke just before getting to his card.  one thing about foster that i find interesting is that he wore number 44 - a number usually identified with sluggers like hank aaron, willie mccovey, and post-oakland reggie jackson.  speaking of sluggers, foster served up the first pitch that willie stargell hit out of dodger stadium (stargell did it twice), although pops wore number 8.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i considered but did not choose a number of cards for this sheet, including 2002 topps 206 paul loduca at number 199, 2013 topps heritage clayton kershaw at number 200, the aforementioned 1983 donruss steve yeager at number 201, 1979 o-pee-chee gary thomasson

at number 202, 1983 fleer greg brock at number 203, 1970 topps len gabrielson at number 204, 2003 topps traded adam riggs

at number 205, 1983 fleer steve garvey

(proving that garvey cards don't always win) at number 206, and 1986 topps fernando valenzuela record breaker at number 207.

my favorite card on the page:

there are a lot of contenders here, but a 1964 topps sandy koufax card - more for the stature than the aesthetic - should and does win out.

final thoughts:

back to the uniform number thing - foster was traded to cleveland after the 1970 season, and he took number 32 (now that is a pitcher's number) with the tribe. the dodgers acquired al downing that same offseason, and he (another pitcher) took foster's 44.  about three years later, downing gave up aaron's 715th career home run - from one 44 to another...