frankendodger sheet 81 (cards 721-726) - this is the end...

here's sheet number 81 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 721-726:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 725 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number 81; front and back]

these cards are:

721. 1992 donruss jose offerman
722. 1984 topps bob welch
723. 1998 donruss collections preferred mike piazza
724. 2008 upper deck ramon troncoso
725. 1990 target john shelby 2022 topps heritage high numbers clayton kershaw
726. 1981 topps rick monday

the "no brainer" of the day:

i believe that the shelby card may be the only number 725 card ever produced to feature a dodger.  so, it is the no brainer of the day by default.

about the cards:

the much maligned 1992 donruss set opens up the final sheet with a card of much maligned jose offerman.  1992 was the year that offerman took over the shortstop position for the dodgers full-time. he held the position through the 1995 season, after which the dodgers and royals did the steve sax/willie randolph thing with offerman and greg gagne and "swapped" shortstops even though offerman was traded to the royals for a reliever and gagne left kc through free agency.

bob welch's 1984 topps card is up next.  the back of the card - in both the text below the stats and in the important sounding "dateline" section - mentions a couple of shutouts thrown by welch in 1983.  in addition to the one-hitter against the phillies and the 6-hitter in which welch homered for the only run, he also threw a 2-hit shutout that season against the mets, beating tom seaver in the process.

mike piazza makes an appearance on the final sheet with a card from the 1998 donruss collections preferred set. the card is number 173 in the regular preferred set, but in this shinier collections set, it's number 723 (the card number is in the lower right on the back).  strangely enough, the only other option for this spot besides the 1990 target set is piazza's 1992 fleer procards minor league card showing him as an albuquerque duke.

upper deck's last contribution to my dodger frankenset is ramon troncoso's 2008 ud flagship card.  it leaves me wondering if anyone ever entered those codes on the back of these cards into upper deck's website.  i did for some back in 2006, i think, but never enough to have it amount to anything. i don't even remember what the purpose was.

it figures that another 1990 target card would make the last sheet, and here is john shelby to fill a spot that otherwise would not be filled.  t-bone had a career year for the dodgers in 1987 following his trade from baltimore, and he won his second world series ring (he won with the orioles in 1983) as the dodger centerfielder in 1988. clayton kershaw was held back for the high numbers release in 2022, and i am glad that was the case! john shelby still exists in the set thanks to his 1989 topps card, so no harm no foul here!

that brings us to card number 726, the last card in the set, and it's rick monday's 1981 topps card.  wilbur wood was card number 726 in 1978 topps, the first set that i collected, but i later discovered that topps sets were not always 726 cards, and in fact the 1978 set was the first time they had been that exact size.  topps maintained the 726 set for three more seasons - the giants' prospect card held that place in 1979, and in 1980 and 1981, it was a dodger at the end of the set, with the centerfielder of my youth holding court in 1981. of course, this was also the year that the traded set was reinstated, and the numbering of that set began at 727, so one could argue that monday's card is not really the last in the set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there weren't a lot of cards to choose from for this sheet, and so the biggest dilemma i faced was whether to go with the monday card at 726 or use steve yeager's 1980 topps card

there instead.  mo won out, thanks in part to his card featuring an action shot and being from their world championship season.  as for filling out the sheet, henry rodriguez's 1994 topps card

is numbered 727, and there are a couple of options at 728 (1985 topps bob bailor

and 1986 topps mike marshall

to be specific) had i chosen to extend the set.  however, the only 729 i could find (other than the target set) was a 1992 minor league card of eddie pye as an albuquerque duke from that same set as the piazza i mentioned above.  it's just as well to keep the set to 726 cards in my opinion.

my favorite card on the page:

that would be the rick monday card. it is fairly representative of the 1981 postseason to me.

final thoughts:

it wasn't too long after i ended my run at garveyceyrusselllopes about 13 months ago that i started working on this frankenset. it kept me busy with my collection, as did the trades that continued to happen even though i didn't have an active blog at the time.

speaking of trades, i offer a big thanks to those that continued to trade with me, and to those who are trading with me still.  i haven't posted any of the cards that i've received in trades over the last 13 months, so i'll give thanks here to the writer's journey, play at the plate, penny sleeve for your thoughts, arpsmith, tim wallach, tribe cards, dime boxes, 2x3 heroes, bob walk the plank, all trade bait all the time, off hiatus, brad's blog, infield fly rule, waiting 'til next year, baseball card breakdown, baseball every night, waxaholic, fuji, and night owl, who has even commented on all of these posts (assuming he comments on this one).  i've been tracking my trades on the sidebar over at garveyceyrusselllopes, updating it whenever i send or receive a package. it's mainly so i don't miss on sending a return package to someone, and completed trades get removed from the list after about a month. as a result, i may have forgotten to thank someone in the text above - if so, i apologize.  i hope to keep trading even after this blog is completed, and i'll keep that tracker going as long as folks are sending me cards. it is appreciated.

finally, thanks for indulging me with this endeavor.  it was fun to put together and share with you.

i'll be around...

frankendodger sheet 61 (cards 541-549) - do you know the way to tatooine?...

here's sheet number 61 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 541-549:

and the back:

these cards are:

541. 2008 upper deck jason schmidt
542. 2005 topps milton bradley
543. 1996 donruss roberto kelly
544. 1980 topps rick sutcliffe
545. 2015 topps clayton kershaw
546. 1978 topps ted martinez
547. 1975 topps von joshua
548. 1981 topps dave goltz
549. 1986 topps bob welch

the "no brainer" of the day:

rick sutcliffe's rookie card was not to be denied entry into this set.

about the cards:

it seems like there have been a few jason schmidt cards pop up in the set lately.  this one is from 2008 upper deck, which is the year that schmidt missed entirely due to injury.

the next two cards - a 2005 topps milton bradley and a 1996 donruss roberto kelly - fall into my 'tatooine' minicollection as well as this frankenset.  as you probably know, i collect cards that feature photos with nothing but dirt in the background. this goes back to sometime in the late 1970's when my brother and i were in our local card and comic shop. there was a 1971 topps world series highlight card in the display case featuring brooks robinson and the infield dirt. being fans of star wars, we claimed that brooks was looking for droids on tatooine.  and now you know the rest of the story.

i was surprised when i (happily) pulled a rick sutcliffe card out of a pack of 1980 topps and saw that he had pitched in 1976.  i was aware of him being with the dodgers for a bit in 1978 and was well versed in his 1979 season in which he won the rookie of the year award, but i did not know he had made his debut way back in '76 even though i pored over those baseball handbooks endlessly in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  one highlight i recall from sutcliffe's '79 season was his first big league home run - it came in a game against the reds in which the dodgers hit seven home runs, all by different players.  sutcliffe went on to win the national league cy young award in 1984 (and finished 2nd in 1987). he was 4th in the mvp voting in 1984.

clayton kershaw, on the other hand, did not win the rookie of the year award, but did win the mvp in 2014 to go along with his three cy young awards. this 2015 topps card recognizes kershaw for being the league's mvp which is rare for a pitcher but sometimes cannot be denied.

ted martinez joined the dodgers for the 1977 season (and played enough to earn a card in the 1978 topps set) after spending 1976 in the reds' minor league system.  that means that he missed the reds' world series run that year, and even though he was with the dodgers in both '77 and '78, he appeared in neither postseason.  martinez debuted for the mets in 1970, the year following their first world series title, but did appear in the 1973 world series with the mets, and the 1975 alcs with the a's.  that means that during the decade of the 1970's, martinez's teams made the postseason 5 times. he was almost don baylor before don baylor.

i believe that this 1975 topps von joshua card is the only dodger card in the set to feature this color combination.  otherwise, it is similar to many dodger cards that feature spring training photos, and is especially similar to the preceding ted martinez card.  are those the same trees in the background?

looking ahead to the 1981 topps dave goltz card next to it, we see more spring training trees, but these are clearly not the same. these trees to goltz's right look to be coniferous, plus there is a parking lot in front of them (who's driving the yellow bug?).

last card of the page is bob welch's 1986 topps card.  1986 was a lost year for the dodgers, who finished 73-89 and in fifth place (and just 0.5 games ahead of the last place braves) in the nl west.  welch did his part with an era of 3.28 over 33 starts. he had 7 complete games and 3 shutouts, but his record was a dodger career worst (winning percentage wise) 7-13.  the following year (welch's last with the dodgers), he had a similar era (3.22) but was 15-9.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1981 donruss burt hooton at number 541, 2006 topps turkey red mark hendrickson

at number 542, 1994 donruss brett butler at number 543, 2003 topps dave roberts at number 544, 1982 topps reggie smith at number 545, this fantastically odd 1995 upper deck collector's choice roberto kelly card

at number 546, 1959 topps jim baxes

at number 547, 1976 topps manny mota at number 548, and 1971 topps jim brewer at number 549.

my favorite card on the page:

as is often the case, the no brainer is also my favorite card of the page.  rick sutcliffe's 1980 topps card was a key card in my collection that year because he had won the rookie of the year the previous season, and this was his first card. thirty-six years later, it's still a favorite.  although i still can't tell whether that is terry forster or someone else in the background.

final thoughts:

roberto kelly made the page, but with his 1996 donruss card rather than that '95 collector's choice card.  that's only because the udcc card is one of those redemption set cards and i don't have a dupe.  yes, 1978 topps and ted martinez would be kicked out of the set if i had another one of those kelly cards.  i don't understand it - upper deck had an image of kelly in dodger gear (real or photoshopped), used it, but still went with an expos photo, too. it is very weird and i like it.

frankendodger sheet 12 (cards 100-108) - the hero number gets updated to avoid an exemption from the earlier rule...

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

here's sheet number 12 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 100-108:

and the back:

here's what the page originally looked like:

these cards are:

100. 2013 topps opening day matt kemp 1990 bowman hubie brooks
101. 2013 topps heritage don mattingly
102. 2008 upper deck derek lowe
103. 2003 upper deck mvp kazuhisa ishii
104. 1995 leaf ramón martinez
105. 1963 topps ron fairly
106. 1962 post willie davis
107. 1996 upper deck sp chan ho park
108. 1980 o-pee-chee dave goltz

the "no brainer" of the day:

i love me some o-pee-chee variations, and i really wanted that dave goltz card in the set.

about the cards:

so, it's matt kemp who makes the first repeat appearance in the frankenset at the hero number of 100.

as i mentioned in the "final thoughts" of this original post, i was a bit miffed that i had not used the hubie brooks bowman card at number 100 in order to maintain the diversity of the set.  so, i made the switch from kemp to brooks.  brooks is not really a hero number kind of guy, but i'll have other opportunities to line up big numbers with big players.

i wanted to have at least one card of every manager from alston on up, so the mattingly card fits in nicely here (over alston, actually).

lowe and ishii are convenient fillers, but i can't believe it's taken 12 pages to get to ramon martinez.  i learned about ron fairly early in my baseball following days due to the fact that he used to wear garvey's number, and he was an announcer for the angels on ktla (pretty sure) after he retired.  i like his colorful 1963 topps card, and it looks great in the set as its first representative.

for the second day in a row, there's a davis on the page.  willie shows up on his 1962 post card - the first blank back in the set i believe (it's tough to keep track).  willie doesn't seem to get a lot of hype, even though he is among the career leaders in so many los angeles dodger categories.  i suspect it has to do with the struggles he had following his retirement and his lack of continuous involvement with the team like some other former players.

chan ho park and dave goltz finish off the page.  chan ho never won more than 18 games in a season, while dave was a 21-game winner in 1977.  i know that wins are not the best measure of a pitcher, especially to compare across generations, but i would think that both pitchers disappointed dodger fans to some degree - park never really lived up to his potential, and goltz never got back to his best days.  still, i was pretty excited when goltz signed with the dodgers and caused that fantastic o-pee-chee card to be created.

cards that didn't make the cut:

part of the reason for kemp originally showing up again was the fact that most of the other options at #100 included koufax or snider or nomo or piazza - guys that have already been included in the set.  however, i could have used (and have still can, i suppose) a 1990 bowman hubie brooks card to maintain the diversity of the set.  if anyone cares to send me one, i might consider it.

other cards passed over include walter alston's 1964 topps card at #101,

chin-feng chen's 2001 topps heritage card, also at #101, 1995 topps stadium club paul konerko at #102, 1968 topps don sutton at #103, 1978 topps lee lacy at #104 (in fact, i could have used either a 1978 topps card (lacy), a 1979 topps card (johnny oates), a 1980 topps card (manny mota), or a 1981 topps card (terry forster) at #104 - supporting my theory about checklist perpetuation?), a 1960 topps larry sherry at #105, a 2000 topps stadium club devon white at #106,

a 1988 pacific zoilo versalles at #107, and a 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia rickey henderson at #108.

my favorite card on the page:

it's the goltz card.

final thoughts:

i am a little bit bothered by that hubie brooks omission.  i think i meant to use a different card from 1990 bowman elsewhere in the set (the dodgers are numbered sequentially in that set), but wound up not doing so, and then forgot that it was then available at #100.  this post may get updated at some point...

and so it has.