frankendodger sheet 69 (cards 613-621) - bat flip!...

here's sheet number 69 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 613-621:

and the back:

these cards are:

613. 2015 topps josh beckett
614. 2003 topps kevin brown
615. 1969 topps len gabrielson
616. 1994 donruss dave hansen
617. 1986 donruss bill madlock
618. 1994 score raul mondesi
619. 1992 pinnacle brett butler
620. 1977 topps don sutton
621. 1975 sspc mickey vernon

the "no brainer" of the day:

given the lack of manager cards in topps' flagship series, the beckett card featuring don mattingly was an easy choice for the set.

about the cards:

josh beckett's 2015 stadium club card features the better photo, but i still like his flagship series 2 card for the mattingly appearance and for the fact that topps recognized beckett's no-hitter even though it came in his final season and he didn't get a regular final tribute card in the set (this card is a checklist).

the 2003 topps kevin brown card doesn't use the typical side view of a pitcher in their delivery, but the best part about this card (aside from the blue border that made 2003 topps a great set for dodger fans) is the inset photo of brown with a batting helmet on.  i was never kevin brown's biggest fan, but i did watch him warm up in the bullpen a few times, and also saw him throw on the side before a couple of games, and i will not forget the sound of the ball hitting the catchers' mitt. dude threw hard.

len gabrielson brings us the last 1960's card of the set. his 1969 topps card notes that he led the dodgers with 10 home runs in 1968. those 10 homers were a career high for gabrielson, who followed up that performance with just one home run in 1969.

dave hansen's 1994 donruss card actually shows him in the field, which is nice. hansen had played 108 games at third in 1992, but that number was down to just 18 in 1993 and then just 7 in 1994 as his career as a pinch-hitting specialist took off.

the best thing about bill madlock's 1986 donruss card is pinky tuscadero in the background above the dodger logo. i have no idea who that really is or what they are doing on the field.

1994 score gave us this raul mondesi card with the disgusted bat flip. i am guessing that the umpire who made the bad third strike call is either joe west, angel hernandez, or eric gregg.

the 1992 pinnacle brett butler card is pretty cool in that it dissects the bunt process. i know of a few major leaguers that could use a bunting tutorial, with byron buxton being at the top of the list.

don sutton is not suttoning on his 1977 topps card, but that's ok.  instead, he's striking the go-to full windup, hands behind head pose.

last card is the 1975 sspc mickey vernon card. vernon never played for the dodgers, but he was on walt alston's coaching staff as the team's hitting coach in 1975. vernon had begun his coaching career with the pirates in 1960 (he was their first base coach), but was activated in september of that year as the pirates were headed to a pennant and world series championship - vernon was manny mota before manny mota!

cards that didn't make the cut:

bill madlock at number 617 may be the only non-target set option at number 617, but i had these cards to consider at the other spots: 1990 score jose vizcaino at number 613, 1991 bowman eddie murray at number 614, 2013 topps mark ellis

at number 615, 1972 topps joe ferguson

at number 616, 1993 bowman raul mondesi at number 618, 2008 topps heritage blake dewitt at number 619, 1974 topps al downing at number 620, and 1973 topps joe ferguson

at number 621,

my favorite card on the page:

if you've been following along with this blog, you probably know that a coach card is going to beat out most others.  i like the beckett and the butler and the mondesi, but the vernon card is my favorite of the bunch.

final thoughts:

i know that the 1975 sspc set is really a 1976 set (kind of like 2012 panini prizm which came out in 2013). i refer to it as 1975 because of the copyright date, but i think most call it 1976 because of the release date (which was delayed due to legal issues if i recall correctly).

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 8 (cards 64-72) - a very pleasant good morning to you, wherever you may be...

here's sheet number 8 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 64-72:

and the back:

these cards are:

64. 1993 pinnacle darryl strawberry
65. 2013 panini cooperstown collection vin scully
66. 2014 panini golden age tom lasorda
67. 2009 topps walmart black parallel andruw jones
68. 1975 sspc charlie hough
69. 2015 panini diamond kings jim gilliam
70. 2000 upper deck mvp kevin brown
71. 1995 upper deck tim wallach
72. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes don newcombe

the "no brainer" of the day:

aside from a couple of steve garvey cards, there is probably not a bigger no-brainer in this set than vin scully's card at number 65.  topps has made a couple of cards of announcers, along with at least one of a public address announcer, but no scully card to date.  i am really hoping that with the topps now set, they will make one for at least one of the nights that the dodgers will be honoring him this year.  and, if that's the case, scully would probably get a second card in the frankenset.

about the cards:

there are three unlicensed cards on this sheet, and the lasorda is the worst of them, although i do wish jim gilliam's arms were a bit higher so that it weren't so obvious that there is no team name on the front of his jersey.  gilliam, like lasorda, was a dodger lifer. he was a coach following his playing days, and he helped the infield of my youth become the infield of my youth.  it bears repeating that his number 19 is the only number retired by the dodgers for a player/coach not in the hall of fame.  lasorda's number is also retired by the club, but he is enshrined in cooperstown as a manager.

scully is also a hall of famer, and i wonder what (if anything) the dodgers might retire in vin's honor at the end of this season.  the cardinals have jack buck as part of their outfield mural, and the giants used (do they still have them?) the ny logo for players that didn't wear numbers - a tactic that could work for scully, i suppose.  we'll just have to wait and see.  i'm in no rush to get to the end of his career.

there are better darryl strawberry cards than the pinnacle card i used, but not at number 64.  the andruw jones card is one of a couple parallels that make the set (figures i would have doubles of the walmart black version of this card, but not the regular base).  charlie hough was the closer (one of them, anyway) on the team of my youth which is odd for a knuckleballer, but he looks happy on the sspc card and i am glad to have another player from the 1978 dodgers in the set.

the kevin brown card kind of reminds me of that 1976 topps tom seaver record breaker card due to the generic looking red helmet in the foreground of the card.  in the 8-spot on the page, we have a tim wallach card that won't be going to new mexico anytime soon (i do have some others that will be headed to a certain lawyer out there), and the last card on the page is perhaps the best card from the 2004 upper deck all-time heroes set.  newk was a good hitting pitcher (he hit .271 over his career), and it's nice to have a card showing his style at the plate.  he will turn 90 in about a month's time, and his presence around the club for the last few decades puts him in the manny mota territory of will they/won't they waive the hof requirement (as they did for gilliam) and retire his number.  i would guess it is less likely that newcombe's number is retired since he has not been in uniform the way mota was for all those post-playing days.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there was at least one other card on this page other than the scully that wasn't going to be bumped for anyone else, but there were some tempting options.  some of the cards that didn't quite make it include some "great" ones such as 2000 fleer greats of the game preacher roe (#64), 2002 fleer greats of the game hack wilson (#65), 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game steve garvey (#66), 2003 fleer flair greats don drysdale (#66), 2011 topps marquee clayton kershaw (#67), 1963 topps duke snider/gil hodges "friendly foes" (#68), 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green (#69),

1994 upper deck collector's choice brett butler (#70), 1958 topps dodger team (#71), and 1989 upper deck brian holton,

but not that one - the one that is really shawn hillegas (#72).

that last one didn't stand a chance against newk's card, and i have a better known player swap later in the set.  i also originally had planned to put a different jim gilliam card (his 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers 1954 topps reprint card) at #69 but went with the panini card instead.

my favorite card on the page:

it's vin, without a doubt.

final thoughts:

i've been watching a bunch of dodger home games through my mlb.tv subscription this year to get my vin scully fix, which means i've been very tired on several mornings.  i missed vin's dissertation on beards, however, so had to check that out on deadspin.  what a treasure, indeed.