frankendodger sheet 57 (cards 505-513) - dodger stadium makes the checklist...

here's sheet number 57 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 505-513:

and the back:

these cards are:

505. 1974 topps bill buckner
506. 1986 topps bill russell
507. 1989 score brian holton
508. 1978 topps johnny oates
509. 1987 topps enos cabell
510. 1980 topps ron cey
511. 1981 donruss steve howe
512. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee dodger stadium/dodgers checklist
513. 1992 upper deck mike morgan

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are only a few cards of dodger stadium in mainstream sets, and i knew i wanted this so-called o-pee-chee card of it in the set.

about the cards:

billy buck leads things off with his 1974 topps card. note that he is listed as a first baseman on the card.  that didn't last long, as steve garvey established himself as the team's first baseman, with buckner moving out to left field.

another bill - this time russell - fills the next spot in the set.  russell is relaxing in the dugout on his 1986 topps card, which makes sense as the dean of the dodgers started only 43 games in what would be his final season.  that total did include, however, his first (and only) career start at third base.

i like brian holton's 1989 score card because it features a glimpse of the old field level scoreboard in dodger stadium in the background. i am thankful that score's production schedule didn't afford them time to pull or modify holton's card following the december 1988 trade that sent him to the orioles.

johnny oates makes his debut in the set, which is understandable since he has only a few (three, i think) dodger cards to his name.  because he has this 1978 topps card showing him as a dodger, however, he may as well have been a dodger for life as far as i am concerned because i think of him as a dodger first.  in fact, oates joined tommy john as being members of the 1977 and 1978 dodgers who lost to the yankees in the world series only to join the yankees and lose to the dodgers in 1981.

are you aware the the enos cabell card here is only the second 1987 topps card in the frankenset so far? here we are in the 500's, and there has only been one other - tom lasorda's card at number 493 - and i am considering switching that card out with a 1985 topps orel hershiser rookie.  that doesn't have anything to do with enos, who was one of the long number of third basemen that al campanis and fred claire and dan evans brought into town between ron cey and adrian beltre.

speaking of cey, here he is on his 1980 topps card.  cey, like von joshua, dusty baker, and steve garvey, was featured in the batting cage on his card from topps in this set. that kind of repetition makes for somewhat boring pages in my topps dodger team set binder.  still, having this card on the same sheet as buckner's 1974 topps card shows how similar the designs are to one another.

and, speaking of similar designs, here is a 1981 donruss card positioned just below a 1978 topps card.  steve howe got cards from all three companies in 1981 after being left off of the dodger future stars card by topps in 1980 which was a great disappointment to many young fans in southern california.  later, it was howe himself who became a great disappointment to many young fans in southern california.

dodger stadium is on display on this 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee card, and it's a beautiful thing.  the stadium got a new address this year, when elysian park avenue was renamed vin scully avenue. it is the third oldest major league baseball stadium, and i hope it stays that way for a long time to come.

last card on the page is mike morgan's 1992 upper deck card with the increasingly rare (and soon to be extinct?) pitcher on the basepaths photo. i have resigned myself to the fact that the dh is coming to the national league sooner rather than later.

cards that didn't make the cut:

various levels of consideration were given to 1994 fleer pedro astacio at number 505, 1961 topps willie davis at number 506, 1993 topps tom lasorda (with hal mcrae) at number 507, 1959 topps art fowler

 at number 508, 1988 fleer tim belcher

at number 509, 1982 topps fernando valenzuela

at number 510, 1995 score tom candiotti at number 511, 1981 topps gary thomasson at number 512, and 1989 topps jesse orosco at number 513.

my favorite card on the page:

we have two members of the infield on this page, along with a 1978 topps dodger and a card of dodger stadium, but i think my favorite card here is the 1981 donruss steve howe.  1981 was the first time i saw a steve howe card (and his donruss card was the first one that i pulled from a pack), and adding the 1980 nl rookie of the year to my collection was a big deal.  so, this card wins on sentimental value.

final thoughts:

why hasn't topps ever put stadium cards in the flagship set? it's not a subset that would work every year, but not even once?  i suppose it has to do with giving up 30 spots on the checklist, but there could have been one year back in the day where we were given a stadium photo rather than a team photo on the team checklist.  still, i do have a few dodger stadium cards, including ones from the topps dodger factory team sets a few years ago.

frankendodger sheet 38 (cards 334-342) - first card, last card...

here's sheet number 38 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 334-342:

and the back:

these cards are:

334. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee russell martin
335. 1998 pacific crown collection otis nixon
336. 2004 topps eric gagne
337. 1986 donruss terry whitfield
338. 1982 topps davey lopes
339. 2003 upper deck vintage daryle ward
340. 2001 topps davey johnson
341. 1971 topps steve garvey
342. 1993 topps stadium club billy ashley

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose steve garvey's rookie card was always going to be number 341 in the set, but davey johnson's managerial card was also a sure thing. still, tough to be more of a no brainer than the '71 topps garvey.

about the cards:

i am pretty sure that the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set was supposed to use the 1977 topps/opc design.  the previews that they put out that year used the same design as what you see on the martin card above, but were referred to on checklists as "1977 o-pee-chee previews".  the backs sure looked like 1977 backs,

and you can see by the martin card that upper deck changed the backs before issuing the actual set.

otis nixon's 1998 pacific crown collection is a nice card - day game at dodger stadium is always a good choice for a card photo - and it reminds me of a story i heard a couple of weeks ago.  nixon played for the twins at one point in his career, and one of the local baseball scribes noted that in one of his first appearances for the team, the public address announcer called him amos otis by mistake. ok - the twins played the royals quite a bit back during the 14 years that amos otis was in the american league.  however, the announcer corrected himself by saying "i'm sorry - now batting, amos nixon".

next up is a 2004 topps card marking eric gagne's consecutive saves streak a 'season highlight'. i used to get a bick kick out of seeing dodgers on league leader and record breaker/highlight cards (i felt like it was a long time between when i started collecting in 1978 and manny mota's 1980 record breaker card), but now it's not quite as exciting for some reason.

terry whitfield was a giant when i started collecting in '78, but i do have one of his non-dodger cards in my dodger sets.  he was a yankee on the same 1976 topps rookie card that featured henry cruz.  anyway, whitfield was released by the dodgers early in the 1986 season - not too long after i found this card in a pack as i recall.

dave lopes was traded by the dodgers following the 1981 season, so i know he was gone by the time i found his 1982 topps all-star card in a pack.  still, it's one of his two dodger cards in the set, and one of his last dodger cards, period.  i did like steve sax, but i didn't like that he replaced dave lopes.  no cards of coaches over the last few seasons means that we likely lost the last opportunity for a current dodger card of lopes.  he's now the first base coach for his former dodger teammate dusty baker in washington dc.

daryle ward shows up on a card from upper deck's 2003 vintage release.  this was the second series or something, and didn't use the 1965 design that got me collecting the set in the first place.  i was confused when i saw these cards, to be honest.  i thought that maybe topps put a kabosh on the use of their designs, but then in 2008, upper deck had those 1969 style inserts and so i was really interested and then confused by the 2009 1977 previews.  i didn't think much about ward because he didn't do much as a dodger.

i was happy to see manager cards back in topps sets in 2001, especially since the dodgers had a new manager since the last time topps made cards for the skippers.  they had gone through a couple, in fact.  johnson was replaced by jim tracy following a 2nd place finish in the nl west in 2000, but at least we have this card to remember him by.

we saw one of the last dodger cards of an infielder earlier, and now we have the first of another.  steve garvey's 1971 topps rookie card was a jewel of my early collection.  it was pretty tough to find growing up in southern california, especially in my price range.  it is weird still to see him with a fielder's glove as opposed to a first baseman's mitt, and that black batting glove is so chic.

finally we have a 1993 stadium club card of billy ashley.  i honestly thought this was an eric karros card when i started writing this post.  it's a reasonable mistake, however, as ashley has the same sort of running hunch that karros displayed.

cards that didn't make the cut:

it was going to be tough to displace many of these cards no matter what other options existed, but some of the cards that weren't chosen include 1982 o-pee-chee fernando valenzuela at number 334, 2002 upper deck dave hansen at number 335, 1994 upper deck jim gott

at number 336, 1984 donruss joe beckwith at number 337, 1990 upper deck alfredo griffin

at number 338, 1994 pinnacle roger mcdowell at number 339, 1989 topps kirk gibson at number 340, 1970 topps bill sudakis

at number 341, and 2002 upper deck victory cesar izturis at number 342.

my favorite card on the page:

i really do like that topps captured the fist move that gagne demonstrated after each save, but there's no way that my favorite card on the page isn't going to be steve garvey's rookie card.

final thoughts:

i saw gagne pitch in person in 2002 and 2004, but not in 2003 at the height of "game over". in 2004, i was at a game at fenway where he was brought into a game in a non-save situation and struck out the side in order (david ortiz took strike 3 to end the game). not quite the same electricity that was to be experienced at dodger stadium, to be sure.  anyway, kenley jansen just passed gagne on the franchise's all-time saves leader board.  it's no surprise as the closer position has become so specialized, but for a long time, jim brewer was at the top of that list.  he was ultimately passed by todd worrell, who was passed by his replacement jeff shaw, who was passed by his replacement in eric gagne.