frankendodger sheet 79 (cards 703-711) - an award winning sheet...

here's sheet number 79 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 703-711:

and the back:

these cards are:

703. 1991 score fernando valenzuela
704. 2002 upper deck 40 man jeff reboulet
705. 1996 upper deck collector's choice hideo nomo
706. 1986 topps pedro guerrero
707. 2009 upper deck eric stults
708. 2009 upper deck jason schmidt
709. 2005 topps cesar izturis
710. 1982 topps jerry reuss
711. 1991 donruss carlos hernandez

the "no brainer" of the day:

not a one of these qualify for no brainer status.

about the cards:

fernando valenzuela in 1990 was not the fernando of 1981, to be sure, but he threw a no-hitter against the cardinals in late june to earn this 1991 score card commemorating the feat.  johnny vandermeer was safe, however, as fernando allowed 10 hits in both his start before and after the no-no.

jeff reboulet looks serious about his mustache and baseball on his 2002 upper deck 40 man card. reboulet played for the dodgers in 2001 and 2002, and appeared in over half of the team's games in 2001, but aside from 40 man and topps total, he was ignored by the card companies during his dodger tenure.  even with that mustache.

upper deck let us know that hideo nomo was named the national league's rookie of the year in 1995 with this card from their 1996 set.  i've always wondered whether nomo himself considered it to be appropriate that he was eligible for the award. i had (and have) no problem with major league players coming from other countries and winning the roy as they are eligible per the definition of a major league rookie, but the braves fans in '95 were not to keen about the award going to someone who had been playing in a different country's major leagues prior to coming to america.

pedro guerrero was representing the dodgers in the 1986 topps all-star subset.  the back of the card lets us know that he led the league in on-base percentage (he also led in slugging percentage) as part of his fantastic 1985 season.  my only gripe about this card is that it doesn't match the 1986 topps design as closely as the all-star cards from 1985 matched that year's design.

i was looking for the all-star designation to replace the team name up top, with the rest of the card remaining the same. and, without the topps logo on the front, it looks like a pretty generic, broder-esque card.

now comes the time when i give thanks to 2009 upper deck. back-to-back with eric stults and jason schmidt means one or two less 1990 target cards in the set.  this is another spot where i am hoping that this year's heritage high numbers can make a difference.

cesar izturis won a gold glove in 2004, just as topps was making cards to honor the winners of that award.  we've not had cards for silver sluggers before (although the bats have shown up on a card or two), but there were a few years there in the 2000's that we got gold glover cards.  i'm not complaining - in fact, i would have liked this in the mid-1970's when steve garvey won four in a row.

it seems like we've been seeing a lot of jerry reuss lately, and here he is again with his 1982 topps card.  this card's photo is all about spring training with the grassy knoll in the background.

last card on the sheet is carlos hernandez's 1991 donruss card.  it's from the green border part of the set, which looks worse than the blue border part of the set.  i would like to have seen the designs that donruss passed on when they chose their 1991 design.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2002 upper deck 40 man darren dreifort at number 703, 2009 upper deck mark loretta at number 704, 2009 upper deck cory wade at number 705, 2009 upper deck casey blake at number 706, 1989 upper deck mickey hatcher

at number 709, 1992 donruss steve wilson at number 710, and 1981 topps joe ferguson

at number 711.

my favorite card on the page:

the jeff reboulet stare/mustache combo is tough to beat, but i like the pedro guerrero card the most even though it is really generic and not tied too closely to the 1986 topps set design.

final thoughts:

we are very near the end of these posts, and i haven't really acknowledged the fact that i am standing on the shoulders of other bloggers who popularized the frankenset concept long before i started the frankendodger project. the first frankenset i knew of was ben henry's topps flagship frankenset. dayf had both a allen & ginter and a topps heritage frankenset, and night owl has a night card and, i believe, an a&g mini frankenset as well.  $30 a week habit has the serial number insanity set, and nick at dimeboxes has his dimebox frankenset.  jeff at 2x3 heroes and jon at penny sleeve for your thoughts are both going for topps buyback frankensets, which is great. brian at hsca also has a team-centered frankenset (go twinkies), and i am sure there are others.  thanks to all for the inspiration.

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.