frankendodger sheet 37 (cards 325-333) - now with more unibrow...

here's sheet number 37 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 325-333:

and the back:

these cards are:

325. 1961 topps wally moon
326. 2009 topps manny ramirez
327. 1969 topps willie crawford
328. 1996 upper deck collector's choice raul mondesi
329. 2011 topps update dee gordon
330. 1975 topps mike marshall
331. 2003 fleer tradition kevin brown
332. 2002 upper deck tom goodwin
333. 2003 topps shawn green

the "no brainer" of the day:

even if he is holding on to the ball, the 2011 topps update dee gordon card is fantastic, and it was going to be in this frankenset.

about the cards:

my blogging sense tells me that the wally moon card is the first 1961 topps card to make the frankenset which is surprising.  i had moon at number 5 in the set with his 1960 topps card before ultimately settling on a 1957 topps sal maglie instead.  both cards give us a good look at the trademark wally moon unibrow, but the 1961 card is, in my opinion, better.

the manny ramirez card here is a postseason highlights card that tells the tale of manny's 1.100 slugging percentage and 2 home runs hit against the cubs in the 2008 nlds.  manny also hit 2 home runs and slugged 1.067 against the phillies in the nlcs, but the dodgers came up short in that series.  manny didn't get to play in a world series with the dodgers, but he did appear in four fall classics - two with the indians and two with the red sox - and hit .243 in those series.  willie crawford's 1969 topps card tells us on the back that willie owned a .500 batting average in the world series at the time of the card's release.  of course, willie had appeared in only one world series at that time (1965), and was 1 for 2 in his plate appearances.  crawford did appear in the 1974 world series with the dodgers and hit .333 with a home run to drop his career fall classic average to .375.

like manny ramirez, raul mondesi hails from the domincan republic, although manny went to high school in new york.  mondesi's collector's choice card here mentions another caribbean ballplayer, roberto clemente, and notes that rauuuuuul was the first dodger to go 20/20 (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season) since kirk gibson in 1988.  in 1997, mondesi would become the first dodger to join the 30/30 club.

remember when dee gordon was a shortstop? he came up to the dodgers in 2011 and hit .304 and stole 24 bases in 56 games and we got this great card from topps as part of their update set. it's a nice example of the shortstop avoiding a slide as part of a potential double play turn, even though gordon didn't throw the ball to first.  i still include it in my dp collection, and went after the various parallels of this card in earnest.

dr. mike marshall's 1975 topps card was an important one to me as i was completing my dodger team sets in the early 1980's.  it was his first card as a dodger in the sense that he was wearing a dodger uniform (unlike his 1974 topps traded card), and it listed his stats on the back with his all important 106 games pitched in 1974. marshall was featured on two other cards in the 1975 topps set - a record breaker and a league leader - but this card was the one i was most intent on acquiring as soon as i learned that a dodger held the record for most games pitched by a reliever in a single season.

vintage card designs were abundant in 2003 with topps heritage, upper deck vintage, and fleer tradition.  at least fleer used one of their designs (1963 fleer) instead of pulling an upper deck and ripping off the 1965 topps design.  anyway, this particular kevin brown card features a peek at the dodger stadium outfield wall with the 40th anniversary of dodger stadium murals.  i loved the murals.

tom goodwin's 2002 upper deck card may be the least interesting card on the page, but at least that is tom goodwin on the card and not adrian beltre.  shawn green's 2003 topps card here is a season highlights card that addresses his week in may of 2002 when he hit 9 home runs over 7 games.  in the midst of that run was a four-homer game in which he had 2 other hits (a single and a double) for 19 total bases - a major league record.  i've written a few times about the fact that i was there for green's four-homer game, so topps should know that it wasn't just brewer fans that were giving green a standing o after he hit his fourth home run.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were still many options for these spots in the frankenset, and some of the runners-up include 1993 score select pedro astacio at number 325, 1993 donruss pedro martinez at number 326, 1982 donruss davey lopes

at number 327, 1998 pacific crown collection greg gagne at number 328, 1976 topps joe ferguson at number 329, 2013 topps update yasiel puig

at number 330, 2014 topps yasiel puig

at number 331, 1989 score mickey hatcher at number 332, and 1998 topps raul mondesi at number 333.

my favorite card on the page:

i would like the shawn green card more if it were specifically about the 4-home run game, so i'll stick with dee gordon as my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

i was also at the dodger/brewer game the night before green's four-homer game.  it was green's rbi triple in the third inning that produced that game's only run.  hideo nomo pitched well, and eric gagne closed things out on a throwback uniform night in which the brewers wore them but the dodgers did not.  i'm guessing that's because their road unis in 2002 were pretty close to what they wore in the early 1960's design wise, as you can tell by comparing the goodwin and moon cards above.

frankendodger sheet 34 (cards 298-306) - like a flamingo...

here's sheet number 34 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 298-306:

and the back:

these cards are:

298. 1972 topps claude osteen (in action)
299. 1987 donruss franklin stubbs
300. 2014 topps heritage clayton kershaw
301. 2003 donruss paul loduca
302. 1981 topps dodgers future stars (jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela)
303. 2011 topps update juan uribe
304. 1970 topps bill russell
305. 1958 topps clem labine
306. 2008 upper deck timeline russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1981 topps dodgers future stars card was one of the collection defining cards for me and my friends in 1981. it had to be in this set.

about the cards:

the local card shop where i grew up was both a card and comic store.  my brother, who read comics, and i would spend a lot of time there. one day we saw the 1972 topps claude osteen in action card and actually wondered if the guy had just one leg.  we found out that he did, in fact, have two legs, but we called this the flamingo card.  that was around the same time that we saw the 1971 topps brooks robinson card that we decided looked like he was searching for droids and the stolen death star plans on tatooine - the beginning of my tatooine collection.

we saw franklin stubbs' 1987 donruss opening day card early on in the set, but thankfully donruss used different photos for that set - something topps does a poor job of with their opening day release. now, the card above does show a confused looking stubbs as opposed to happy stubbs on the od card, but still, different photos.

here we are at the hero number.  i like that topps heritage often matches players/managers up with the same card numbers from the set being honored, and that is certainly the case here.  clayton kershaw gets number 300 in 2014 heritage, and sandy koufax was number 300 in the 1965 set.

i just wish they would match the pose, too.  kershaw's card uses a photo that makes me think the photographer just yelled "hey, clayton - over here!" and then snapped the photo.

not much to say about the 2003 donruss paul loduca card, so let's move on to the jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela rookie.  back in 1981, me and my friends were skeptical of fleer and donruss - topps was usually the priority for pack busting.  still, we bought a fair amount of the others, although most of my donruss cards that year came from buying a brick of dodger cards from a fellow collector.  anyway, fleer didn't even spell fernando's name correctly and donruss didn't bother to include him in their set, so it was topps all the way if you wanted to flaunt a fernando rookie.  throw in sweaty mike scioscia, and it was the card to have as fernandomania took over.  love this card.

i appreciate topps using a photo of juan uribe in the baby blue throwbacks for his 2011 update card. i still think the dodgers should have worn the 1916 checkered uniforms of the robins this season - it is the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance, after all.  i also appreciate topps giving outfielder bill russell a card of his own in 1970.  he did play in 98 games for the dodgers in 1969, but with topps putting bill buckner (one game in 1969) over steve garvey (three games in 1969), one is never certain of the criteria for inclusion in a set.

the photo and hat positioning on clem labine's 1958 topps card give the impression that he had a very long cranium.  not 1988 o-pee-chee delino deshields long, but long nonetheless.  finally we have a russell martin card from the 2008 upper deck timeline set - specifically the subset that pays homage to the 2004 legends set.  four years is pretty quick to re-use a design, but i don't mind since i am a fan of the timeless teams set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

aside from the 1965 topps koufax card at the hero number 300, here are some other cards that could have been included but weren't:  1961 topps jim golden

at number 298, 1988 donruss mickey hatcher

at number 299, 1981 donruss jay johnstone at number 300, 1958 topps randy jackson at number 301, 1980 topps dodgers team card at number 302, 1994 leaf ramon martinez at number 303, 1992 bowman jose offerman at number 304, steve garvey's newest card (from 2016 topps archives)

at number 305, and 1984 topps dodgers batting & pitching leaders (pedro guerrero/bob welch) at number 306.

my favorite card on the page:

some tough competition, and bill russell's rookie card falls just short of the perconte/scioscia/valenzuela card - perhaps my favorite multi-player rookie card ever.

final thoughts:

including garvey in this year's archives release, as a short print no less, follows the trend. in 2013, dave lopes got the sp treatment with a 1976 style card.  the following year, it was bill russell's turn with a 1973 card (auto'd only).  last year i was expecting the garv, but eric karros and shawn green got the call for the auto only insert set instead.  here's hoping the penguin shows up in 2017.

in other archives related news, i've entered a couple of contests over at sport card collectors.  one is archives related, and the other is a sports challenge contest - both with some great prizes.  check them out!

frankendodger sheet 25 (cards 217-225) - bill russell makes a point...

here's sheet number 25 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 217-225:

and the back:

these cards are:

217. 1962 topps walt alston
218. 1996 score kevin tapani
219. 1983 fleer bill russell
220. 2003 topps heritage victor diaz
221. 2011 topps update jamey carroll
222. 1978 o-pee-chee dave lopes
223. 1995 upper deck collector's choice ismael valdes
224. 1998 donruss collections leaf eddie murray
225. 1989 topps ramon martinez

the "no brainer" of the day:

with the dodger stadium backdrop, ramon martinez's rookie card was guaranteed a spot in the set.

about the cards:

alston looks a little bit pained as he leans on the bat rack. not sure if that is the panic button on the wall behind him, but his 1962 dodgers lost six of their last seven games of the season, blowing a 4 game lead over the giants in the process, and then lost two games of the three game playoff against the no-cals to miss out on the pennant.  that team won 102 games, which was the most for an alston led team (later tied by the 1974 pennant winning team). kevin tapani, meanwhile, joined the dodgers for the latter part of the 1995 season and did make the postseason in the process.  he pitched poorly in two appearances against the reds, however, as the dodgers were swept in the nlds.

i love that russell card.  i like to think that he just hit a bomb after the opposing team intentionally walked someone to get to him, and he's glaring into the dugout to make a point. victor diaz never played for the dodgers. he was traded to the mets during the 2003 season for jeromy burnitz and wound up reaching the big leagues with them in 2004.

jamey carroll's 2011 topps update card was a welcome addition to my dodger collection back when it was released.  i think it would have worked better as a horizontal card, however.  did you know that davey lopes really doesn't have any topps dodger cards showing him on the playing field other than his 1976 record breaker that was included on the first sheet of this set, the 1978 topps nlcs card, and his 1982 'in action' card that shows him in a batting stance?  it's pretty much all poses and candid shots for lopes from 1973 through 1982, and his 1978 topps/o-pee-chee card is no exception.  i still like the card though.

ismael valdes looks really happy on his 1995 collector's choice card, but i am concerned that the high five he is about to give/receive will irritate the blisters on his fingers and cause him to miss a start or two.  valdes apparently had fairly fragile skin (seriously) and would often develop blisters.  moises alou had some advice for him, i think.

steady eddie murray was featured in a number of sets in 1998 which was great because he was included (mostly) as a dodger, and all of those cards were final tributes for his hall of fame career that ended in 1997.  this card is sort of a parallel of his regular leaf card.  it may look like it is number 24 (the number of his regular leaf card), but it is really number 224.  you have to look for the other number at the bottom of the back.

donruss used all of the cards from their various sets in this 'collections' release.  base donruss started at number 1, leaf at 201, elite at 401, and you get the idea.  i have a couple of other cards from this set later on in the frankenset.

last, but not least is ramon martinez's topps rookie card. this card was kind of a big deal in southern california, especially after ramon won 20 games in 1990 as a 22-year old and finished as the runner up to doug drabek in the cy young vote.  with the nice dodger stadium background, i appreciated the card all the more.

cards that didn't make the cut:

even though it is pink and not yellow like most of the other dodgers in the set, carl erskine's 1959 topps card gave way to alston at number 217.  other near misses include 1995 pacific orel hershiser at number 218, 1994 upper deck collector's choice jose offerman

at number 219, 1974 or 1975 topps don sutton at number 220, 1997 upper deck tommy lasorda

at number 221, 2004 donruss team heroes steve garvey at number 222, 2005 topps cesar izturis at number 223, 2008 upper deck timeline manny ramirez at number 224, and 1983 fleer bob welch

at number 225.

my favorite card on the page:

happy ismael valdes and friends in the home whites wins over ropes, lopes, and rookie ramon.

final thoughts:

julio urias made his big league debut last night (i am writing this on may 28).  he is the latest dodger pitcher to come from mexico, following vicente romo, jose pena, fernando valenzuela, and valdes among others (like elmer dessens!).  valdes also made his first big league start against the mets (although he had made a number of relief appearances prior to that), and was pulled after giving up back-to-back hits to open the second inning. urias pitched a bit longer, with worse results, but he will be fine. better than fine, in fact.