frankendodger sheet 31 (cards 271-279) - it's the base on balls that makes it so bad...

here's sheet number 31 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 271-279:

and the back:

these cards are:

271. 2003 bowman leigh neuage
272. 1997 donruss todd zeile
273. 2004 topps heritage jeromy burnitz
274. 1995 pinnacle ramon martinez
275. 1984 donruss jose morales
276. 2010 upper deck doug mientkiewicz
277. 1989 topps mike davis
278. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams kirk gibson
279. 1991 topps jose gonzalez (billy bean)

the "no brainer" of the day:

there is only one card of doug mientkiewicz as a dodger, and, since i used to have a pc of the guy, his 2010 upper deck card was a certainty for this set.

about the cards:

the bowman neuage card brings up thoughts of what might have been had neuage not passed away in 2003. i posted the chrome version of his card on my flagship blog, and shortly thereafter received an email from neuage's father relaying the news and providing a link to his online memorial.

todd zeile has two cards in the 1997 donruss set, and when i chose his card to fill this slot i realized that i only had one copy. i ordered another from sportlots, but chose the wrong one.  hate when that happens.  i finally got it right with my next order.  jeromy burnitz's 2004 topps heritage card is not his best card from 2004 (we'll see that one later on) but it fits in the set so there it is.

i may be in the minority, but i prefer the pinnacle cards like this 1995 ramon martinez over the black bordered sets they put out in the early 1990's.  i also prefer 1984 donruss to all other donruss sets of the 80's and 90's.  that jose morales card is great.  i assume that gary carter is crouching behind the plate, and the card features a shot we don't see too often on baseball cards.  also, it's great that donruss listed morales as a catcher, but he never went behind the plate during his dodger tenure which began in 1982.

doug mientkiewicz was probably my favorite player on the twins in the early 2000's, and i was happy that he was able to take his gold glove to boston and win a ring in 2004, adding to the gold medal he won in 2000 thanks to his home run heroics.  i was also glad to see him with the dodgers in 2009. i met him once at a card show and talked to him for a few minutes.  he had a few tommy stories to tell (lasorda was the manager of the 2000 olympic team) and mentioned that disney had been kicking around the idea of a movie about that team.  it would be interesting to see who they would have cast as lasorda.

and now we get to the happy circumstance that puts a 1989 topps mike davis card in front of a 2004 upper deck legends kirk gibson card.  one can't help but think of davis batting in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 1 of the 1988 world series with two outs and drawing the walk that made gibby's impossible home run possible.  after the radio silence and vin scully's improbable/impossible quote, joe garagiola noted that it was davis's walk that turned the home run into a game winner.  davis also homered later in the series, and what had been a frustrating season for him turned out to be one that is still celebrated by dodger fans.

finally, we have the 1991 topps  jose gonzalez card that actually features a photo of billy bean.  outside of the 1990 target set, there is no other card that i know of that shows bean as a dodger.  it's too bad that he doesn't get the name credit.  these days, bean is mlb's ambassador of inclusion which is great except that it is unfortunate that such a position is needed at all.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were quite a few cards that could have been on this sheet, including a number of topps flagship cards like 2002 topps chan ho park at number 271, 1977 topps lee lacy

at number 272, 1983 topps mark belanger

at number 273, 1984 topps rick monday at number 274, 2011 topps clayton kershaw at number 275, 1967 topps bruce brubaker at number 276, 1988 topps alejandro pena at number 277, 1960 topps stan williams at number 278, and 1991 topps jose gonzalez (that really is jose gonzalez)

at number 279.

my favorite card on the page:

despite a few good ones here, i'll perhaps surprise folks and pick the morales card over dougie, gibby, and billy/jose.

final thoughts:

it is unlikely that we will hear vin scully call the world series this season, at least for national radio as he did in 1988 among other years.  he has already turned down an invitation to broadcast (or even be part of) the all-star game, and it doesn't seem likely that the dodgers will win the pennant given the fact that they don't win very much unless kershaw is on the mound. hopefully, they pull it together and "win for vin".

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...