frankendodger sheet 75 (cards 667-675) - johnnie b. is good...

here's sheet number 75 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 667-675:

and the back:

these cards are:

667. 1989 upper deck orel hershiser
668. 1978 topps dusty baker
669. 1989 topps dodgers leaders
670. 2002 upper deck brian jordan
671. 1979 topps joe ferguson
672. 2003 topps james loney
673. 2006 upper deck olmedo saenz
674. 1982 topps dave goltz
675. 1990 upper deck ramon martinez

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1978 topps dusty baker was always going to be in this set.

about the cards:

orel hershiser leads off with one of his 'extra' cards from the 1989 upper deck set. this one is all about orel winning the world series mvp.  he threw a 3-hit shutout in game 2, and then pitched another complete game, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, in the game 5 clincher.

dusty baker's 1978 topps card makes me smile. it's not that johnnie b's smile is that infectious, it's just that this card stood out to me as a young collector for not featuring a posed photo, but rather a picture of a guy looking into the stands and smiling. i was confused at first because the photo is not from dodger stadium, and why on earth would a dodger be smiling while looking into the stands at candlestick park (there's a guy wearing a giants cap behind dusty), but then i figured out that carmichael, california (baker's home according to the back of the card) was near sacramento and he probably saw someone he knew in the stands. either that or someone was holding a funny sign.

the 1989 topps dodgers leaders card was the last of its kind for a while.  the team focused card had evolved from the team photo in the early 1980's to the team's statistical leaders before going awol in 1985.  topps brought it back in 1986 honoring the team's longest tenured player in 1986, and then went  to random multi-player/coach photos from 1987-1989 before having it go away altogether after that. topps eventually brought the team photo card back in 2001.  on this '89 card, we get mike scioscia, orel hershiser, and steve sax together with (i assume) alfredo griffin listening to ron perranoski (again, i assume) wax poetic about things pathetic tell orel to "smoke 'em inside" as any good pitching coach would do.  i think topps could have done better with this card, as pretty much the whole dodger team was around home plate on october 15, 1988, and that scene would have made for a better card than this.  i am guessing production schedules got in the way, as the cards were starting to come out pretty early in the late '80's and early '90's as i recall.

brian jordan's 2002 upper deck card is aesthetically pleasing to me, not because of the forgettable card design, but because of the strata of dirt, grass, fence, and foliage. it's like a layer cake of colorful goodness.

the next card is joe ferguson's 1979 topps card.  joe ferguson was, to me, kind of the odd man out on the 1978 dodgers. he rejoined the team in july of 1978 which was too late for me to consider him a true member of the team of my youth, even though i knew from studying the back of my 1978 topps ferguson card (on which he was an astro) that he had  started his career with the dodgers, and had been on the team as recently as 1976.  steve yeager was the catcher, period, and even though ferguson caught a fair number of games in 1978 and again in 1979, yeager was still my guy.  and, when ferguson played the outfield (mostly right field for the injured reggie smith), it was not enough for me to insert him into 'my' lineup that always featured smith in right.  still, i was disappointed when the dodgers released ferguson late in the 1981 season, and glad that the angels picked him up.

james loney's 2003 topps card was one of those draft pick/prospect cards that you often see and forget about.  i, on the other hand, decided to keep track of loney's progress due to the fact that the dodgers had brought in fred mcgriff to play first and i was wondering when the inevitable turnstile would stop.  loney made the bigs in 2006 (after mcgriff, shawn green, hee seop choi, and nomar garciaparra had manned first base) and stuck in 2007.  my favorite loney moment was his grand slam against the cubs in the 2008 nlds, and he has gone on to have a pretty good career.  he's with the mets now, and i don't think he will get to the postseason this year, but if he were to make it, i'd bet on him and his .354 lifetime postseason average to make some noise.

remember olmedo saenz? the killer tomato?  he also played a fair amount of first base during the jim tracy years, along with jason phillips as i recall.  saenz was largely shut out of card sets during his time with the dodgers, but the almost too large 2006 upper deck set didn't leave him out, and for that, i am grateful.

dave goltz makes another appearance with his 1982 topps card. this set has long been referred to as the hockey stick set, and i saw someone on one of the blogs (it was a comment at baseballcardbreakdown) refer to the recently debuted 2017 topps card design as having a hockey or goalie stick feel as well.

i can see that. and there is even a team logo puck on the card, too.

last card on the sheet is a 1990 upper deck ramon martinez card, with pedro's big brother ready to do some hitting!  sometimes, that turns out ok, too!

i really want to believe that the photo on the 1993 upper deck martinez card comes from his 1991 home run (the only one of his career) off of tom glavine.  it seems to work - it was a day game in late september, and brett butler was on deck when ramon hit his solo shot.  plus, i don't think ramon would be that happy if he had only scored a run. if it is indeed from that game, the dodgers' win that day put them up by a game and a half over glavine and the braves with 11 games to play.  of course, that was yet another year when the giants killed the dodgers' playoff hopes, this time by winning two out of three of the season ending series, leaving the blue one game behind the eventual national league champion braves.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2006 upper deck dioner navarro

at number 667, 1979 topps bill north (like ferguson, another guy who played a lot for the dodgers in 1978 but didn't replace rick monday in 'my' dodger lineup)

at number 668, 1990 topps tommy lasorda at number 669, 2006 upper deck kenny lofton

at number 670, 1992 bowman eric davis at number 671, 2006 upper deck nomar garciaparra at number 672, 2003 topps total paul loduca at number 673, 1993 bowman mike james at number 674, and 2006 upper deck ramon martinez (the other ramon martinez) at number 675.

my favorite card on the page:

even with some guy in a giants hat behind him, dusty baker's 1978 topps card is my favorite card on this sheet.

final thoughts:

eagle-eyed readers might notice that this set has back-to-back cards from 1989 upper deck - kirk gibson's card at 666 that we saw yesterday and orel's card at 667 up above.  i went with this rather than put the navarro card on this sheet as that would mean two 2006 upper deck cards here.  not that two cards from the same set on the same sheet is a deal breaker, but going back-to-back with '89 upper deck was more appealing due to the fact that the cards land on different sheets.  besides, showing cards from 1989 that deal with the dodgers' 1988 world championship means never having to say you're sorry.

spoiler alert - there is a sheet coming up with back-to-back cards from the same set. unless 2016 topps heritage high numbers can come to the rescue!

frankendodger sheet 73 (cards 649-657) - that's a high number for a chrome set...

here's sheet number 73 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 649-657:

and the back:

these cards are:

649. 1987 fleer ralph bryant/jose gonzalez
650. 2009 topps heritage jim thome
651. 1981 topps pedro guerrero
652. 2005 topps dodgers team
653. 2001 topps chrome jackie robinson
654. 1985 topps dave anderson
655. 2008 topps heritage angel berroa
656. 1992 donruss ramon martinez
657. 1991 donruss dennis cook

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1981 topps pedro guerrero card - his first solo card.

about the cards:

the dodgers had been shut out of fleer prospect/rookie cards in previous issues (1985 and 1986), so i was happy to see this ralph bryant/jose gonzalez card in fleer's 1987 set. both bryant and gonzalez debuted with the dodgers in 1985 and had relatively significant playing time with the team in 1986, so they weren't really prospects anymore. gonzalez played in the majors for a few more seasons, but bryant left for japan following the 1987 campaign.

jim thome joined the dodgers just about 7 years ago with 564 home runs to his name. he left the dodgers for minnesota after the season ended with 564 home runs to his name.  all we dodger collectors got were a few jim thome dodger cards, including this 2009 topps heritage card.  he kicked ass in minny in 2010, by the way, which was fun to watch.

after including pedro guerrero in the 1979 set as part of the future stars subset, topps ignored him in 1980.  they were, however, the only folks to make a card of guerrero in 1981, and for that i was thankful. this remains my favorite topps pedro guerrero card (my second favorite is the one topps issued as part of their fan favorites set in 2005

that also used the 1981 design, which i liked so much, i put it in my blog header at garveyceyrusselllopes).

the 2005 topps dodger team card was chosen for the next spot over the 2004 topps dodger team card (way to recycle the checklist, topps) simply because the back addresses the fact that the '04 team won the west for the first time since 1995. that 9 year drought is the longest for the team since divisional play began,

filling the number 653 spot is a jackie robinson golden moments card from 2001 topps chrome.  the 2016 topps chrome set that was released last week has a scant 200 cards in the base set. the chrome set went from 660 as recent as 2002 to 440 in 2003 to 330 in 2006 to 220 in 2008. last year was the first to feature a 200 card checklist.

dave anderson's 1985 topps card features a photo that shows the olympic patch that the dodgers wore in 1984 to celebrate the games being hosted in los angeles. dodger stadium was used for baseball, which was an exhibition sport that year.  i hear that baseball will return to the olympics in 2020 in tokyo, and i am left to wonder whether mlb and the mlbpa will decide to find a way to let major leaguers participate.

the thome card and this 2008 topps heritage angel berroa card give me some hope that a few of the spots being filled by 1990 target cards (or other weaker cards) might yet be filled by heritage high number cards.  it would be great if this year's josh reddick heritage high number card turned out to be 718, for example.

it seems like there have been a few ramon martinez cards in the set lately, and there have been.  this 1992 donruss card is the latest card of pedro's older brother to be featured. i'm not sure what stadium ramon is pitching in there, but the color of the outfield wall is clearly dodger blue.

the last card on this sheet is dennis cook's 1991 donruss card. clearly a night card, as opposed to darryl strawberry's 1991 donruss card

i think. i am pretty sure strawberry's presser was during the day, and i know it was held indoors.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1972 topps pete richert

at number 649, 1971 topps rich allen

at number 650, 1993 topps rafael bournigal at number 651, 2004 topps dodgers team at number 652, 1994 score dodger stadium

at number 653, 1986 topps ken howell at number 654, 1992 topps brett butler at number 655, 1989 upper deck fernando valenzuela at number 656, and 1992 bowman roger mcdowell at number 657.

my favorite card on the page:

if only thome had been wearing a hat or helmet when the photo used on his heritage card was taken, it might have supplanted the pedro guerrero card as my favorite on the page.

final thoughts:

i took a quick look around, and see that this year's heritage high number set will finish with a card numbered 725.  that's great. i really do hope there are a couple of dodger cards at numbers that i can use (come on, 718!).

frankendodger sheet 72 (cards 640-648) - silver sluggers and a silver fox...

here's sheet number 72 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 640-648:

and the back:

these cards are:

640. 1994 topps darryl strawberry
641. 1979 topps bobby castillo
642. 1992 topps tim crews
643. 1974 topps dodgers team
644. 1980 topps charlie hough
645. 1991 topps juan samuel
646. 2011 topps matt kemp/andre ethier
647. 2001 upper deck victory shawn green
648. 1984 donruss duke snider

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1984 donruss duke snider card was a no brainer for me. that was the first card of a retired dodger that i pulled from a mainstream pack. i was pretty excited as a dodger fan that the silver fox was the puzzle in 1984, and it certainly contributed to me buying more packs of donruss that year.

about the cards:

it's hard for me to recall darryl strawberry having dodger cards as late as 1994, since it seems like he played for them for such a short time. of course, strawberry didn't play for the dodgers in 1994, and this '94 topps card is one of the last to feature him in dodger blue. 1994 was the year that darryl went awol at the end of spring training and shortly thereafter enrolled at the betty ford center. the dodgers released him early in the season, and he wound up signing with the giants.  blech.  you will note that the 1994 topps card features a photo of strawberry from the 1993 season (a season in which he hit just .140 in 32 games). we know it is from 1993 because the tim crews memorial patch is visible.

the 1979 topps bobby castillo card was one that i was looking forward to - not as much as the 1979 topps bob welch card, but there was still some anticipation on my part. during the 1978 season, i would listen to dodger games while sitting at the dining room table with my dad as he caught up on paperwork. the little transistor radio would sit between us, and vin scully, jerry doggett, and ross porter would spin their tales while the dodgers advanced to a second consecutive national league pennant. i would sometimes look at my 1978 topps cards while listening, and when castillo came into the game, i had no card to look at.  with bill north and joe ferguson, i had cards but they showed those guys as an athletic and an astro.  still, i had cards. for castillo (and welch and rudy law), i had nothing. as you will see below, my feelings about this card are strong enough for it to bump a 1978 topps card out of the frankenset!

i mentioned the tim crews memorial patch showing on the strawberry card, and now here is the man himself on a 1992 topps card.  crews left the dodgers after the 1992 season and joined the indians. it was during spring training in 1993 that he died (along with teammate steve olin) in a boating accident, prompting the dodgers and indians to wear memorial patches.

the 1974 topps dodger team card features, as do most dodger team cards from 1971 on (1972 being the only exception i can think of), a photo of the team in dodger stadium. they chose a more nondescript part of the stadium as the background (that's the first base side of the stadium behind them) rather than the pavilions.  for what it's worth, steve garvey is in the second row between lee lacy and joe ferguson.

charlie hough is on that team card, too. he's in the back row next to don sutton, and here he is as well on his 1980 topps card. this was the last topps card to feature hough as a dodger as he had his contract purchased by the rangers in july of 1980.  i was disappointed as the team of my youth was starting to disassemble - first rick rhoden before the 1980 season, and then hough during it.  after the season, don sutton would move on, too, and it's a good thing the dodgers won it all in 1981 otherwise i would have really lost it when davey lopes was traded away following that postseason.

with lopes gone, steve sax took over and was even my favorite dodger after steve garvey left for san diego prior to the 1983 season.  after sax left for the yankees following the 1988 postseason, the dodgers struggled (and still struggle) to find a long-term solution at second base. one guy they brought in for a while was juan samuel, seen here on his 1991 topps card.  sammy came over from the mets in a deal that cost the dodgers mike marshall and alejandro pena, which was not necessarily a lot depending upon how you felt about pena.  even though he was not the dynamic player he had been with the phillies early in his career, samuel was pretty reliable in his two full seasons with the dodgers, and he was part of the dodger contingent at the 1991 all-star game.

in 2009, both matt kemp and andre ethier were named recipients of the silver slugger award, and the photo of them receiving the awards at the start of the 2010 season made its way to this 2011 topps card.  the dodgers have had more pitchers win the silver slugger than any other position (if you separate out the outfielders) with fernando valenzuela, tim leary, orel hershiser, and zack greinke each taking home the hardware as dodgers. by my count, the other dodgers to win the silver slugger are dusty baker, pedro guerrero, steve sax, kirk gibson, eddie murray, mike piazza, eric karros, adrian beltre, jeff kent, russell martin, and adrian gonzalez.

not on that list is shawn green, who appears here on a 2001 upper deck victory card. during green's best offensive years, he lost out to barry bonds, sammy sosa, luis gonzalez (in his anomaly of a year in 2001), and vladimir guerrero.

last card on this sheet is the 1984 donruss duke snider card. in 1982, following a ruling favoring topps, donruss switched from gum to puzzle pieces as the accompaniment to their cards in packs.  that first year, the puzzle was of babe ruth, and in 1983, it was mickey mantle. donruss chose snider for the puzzle in 1984, and they included a card showing the complete puzzle image in the card set for the first time.  just another reason that 1984 donruss is my favorite donruss set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1993 donruss tom goodwin at number 640, 1978 topps doug rau (thanks to bobby castillo's 1979 topps card)

at number 641, 1984 donruss dave anderson at number 642, 2014 topps alex guerrero

at number 643, 1979 topps manny mota at number 644, 2013 topps luis cruz at number 645, 1993 bowman mike piazza at number 646, 2002 topps total odalis perez at number 647, and 1989 donruss orel hershiser

at number 648.

my favorite card on the page:

as much as i like seeing dodgers get awards on cards, the duke snider card is my favorite here.

final thoughts:

as far as i have been able to gather, since moving to los angeles, the dodgers have worn some sort of memorial independently from the rest of the league 8 times.  this includes a combined memorial patch for roy campanella and don drysdale who passed away within a few days of each other in 1993, but not a patch worn for a front office employee during a tour of japan.  this list includes a presidential candidate (bobby kennedy in 1968), the wife of an active player (ken mcmullen in 1974), two active coaches (jim gilliam in 1978 and don mcmahon in 1987), and an active former player in tim crews.  the rest have been players for whom the dodgers have retired a number - campanella and drysdale, pee wee reese in 1999, and duke snider in 2011.  the dodgers did not wear a memorial following the death of jackie robinson - most likely because he passed away in october of 1972, and not during or close to the start of a baseball season.  earlier that year, the mets wore an armband for gil hodges, but not the dodgers.

as many of you know, i have a mini collection of cards featuring memorial patches and armbands, and so i think about this stuff.  i wonder for whom the dodgers will wear patches for in the future.  given what seems to be their current criteria, sandy koufax, don sutton, and tom lasorda would be on the list, as would vin scully given his hall of fame status.  walter o'malley didn't receive a patch as many other owners have in recent years, so i'm not sure whether peter o'malley would at this point.  i was a bit confused about the dodgers not wearing some sort of memorial for willie davis after he died, as he is still high on many los angeles dodger statistical leader boards, so what about don newcombe, manny mota, and maury wills? they've been a part of the dodger family for decades but are not in the hall of fame.  similarly, will the padres (who have retired his number) and not the dodgers wear something when steve garvey passes?  it's kind of a downer subject, but the connection to the past is a bigger part of the game for me the older i get.

frankendodger sheet 71 (cards 631-639) - i guess it's personal...

here's sheet number 71 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 631-639:

and the back:

these cards are:

631. 1975 topps lee lacy
632. 2001 topps devon white
633. 1983 topps vicente romo
634. 1991 upper deck kirk gibson
635. 1989 score ramon martinez
636. 2001 topps chrome dodgers team
637. 1994 upper deck collector's choice mike piazza
638. 2015 topps jimmy rollins
639. 1973 o-pee-chee willie crawford

the "no brainer" of the day:

i really don't think there is a card on this sheet that i could make a case for being a no brainer.  sorry.

about the cards:

to me, the best thing about about 1975 topps is that there are many dodger cards that feature dodger stadium as a backdrop. the lee lacy card is one of those cards.  as you can see, lacy wore number 34, and his is one of the few numbers with which i do not associate a member of the 1978 topps dodgers. to me, 34 is fernando.  if you care, number 5 is jim lefebvre, not johnny oates, and number 3 is steve sax, not glenn burke.

devon white's 2001 topps card is here because i already had kirk gibson's 1991 upper deck card on the sheet, and the best alternative at 632 was a different '91 upper deck card. i'm trying to avoid the same set on a page as much as possible, but it happens a few times in the last few sheets.

vicente romo's 1983 topps card marked romo's return to baseball card sets after being absent since the 1975 topps set.  romo had been pitching in the mexican league since then - at least until the dodgers brought him back to the big leagues in 1982.  romo had been a dodger earlier in his career, a story i told as part of my 'double dipper' series.  a while back, night owl had a post (can't find it right now) about players whose names we mispronounced as kids. my offering was ben oglivie (i always pronounced it oh-gli-vee instead of oh-gull-vee), but romo would have been another - i was always reading his name as vincente instead of vicente.

kirk gibson's 1991 upper deck card shows off the receding hairline gibson was hiding under his hat and helmet during the latter part of his playing days.  it also features a nice cloud of dust and an umpire ready to make a call.  aside from gibby's home runs (one in particular), i think my favorite play of his as a dodger was the time he scored from second on a wild pitch to win a game. dude hustled.

the next card is one of ramon martinez's less heralded rookie cards - his 1989 score card.  his topps and upper deck cards were a bigger deal, but only the score card has him doing an "i'm a little teapot" routine.

the higher the card numbers get, the more team cards and the like we will see.  this one comes courtesy of 2001 topps chrome, which was a full-sized set 15 years ago.  i bought some chrome at target the other day, and came away with three dodgers. two were of kenta maeda

who is the cover boy for chrome this year, and the other is of persona non-grata yasiel puig.

based on some of the stories that have been alluded to about puig and his teammates, i don't think he'll be back with the big club anytime soon.

next, we get up close and personal with hall of famer mike piazza, thanks to 1994 upper deck collector's choice. there's no real insight here, just some information taken from an issue of "baseball weekly", but at least there's no mention of tommy lasorda. what a tired story that became.

back over at the garveyceyrusselllopes blog, i had a series about out of place players - players that didn't really belong on the dodgers.  think frank robinson, boog powell, and jim thome.  jimmy rollins is one of those guys.  rollins' 2015 topps card is his second card in the frankendodger set, however, which is more than some more 'legit' dodgers.

last card on the sheet is a 1973 o-pee-chee card of willie crawford.  the back of the card has english text saying, in part, that crawford "was murder against lefthanders", hitting for a .377 average against them in 1971.  the french translation is a bit nicer, saying that "il obtint une moyene" - he obtained an average of .377.

the card also translates a second line of english text regarding the pirates, but that english text only appears on the topps card,

and it refers to the pirates as the bucs.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1990 topps john wetteland

at number 631, 1991 upper deck jim neidlinger

at number 632, 1984 fleer steve sax at number 633, 1984 topps mike marshall at number 634, 1982 fleer fernando valenzuela (west meets east) at number 635, 1982 fleer fernando valenzuela at number 636, 1988 score mike devereaux at number 637, 2008 topps juan pierre at number 638, and 1971 topps tom haller

at number 639.

my favorite card on the page:

it's down to the lacy vs. the gibson, and i'll go with lacy in dodger stadium.

final thoughts:

there are only 10 more pages in the frankenset to show, and the card selection is getting thinner.  we've seen the final cards from the 50's and 60's, but the 70's through the 10's are still represented in the final ten sheets.  just know that there's not going to be quite as much set diversity the higher we go.

frankendodger sheet 68 (cards 604-612) - don't sweat it...

here's sheet number 68 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 604-612:

and the back:

these cards are:

604. 1992 topps chris gwynn
605. 1979 topps rick monday
606. 1981 fleer steve garvey
607. 1988 topps mickey hatcher
608. 1991 bowman tom goodwin
609. 1982 topps rick sutcliffe
610. 1983 topps steve garvey
611. 1994 topps todd worrell
612. 2006 topps dodgers team

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be steve garvey's last topps flagship card of him as a dodger.

about the cards:

chris gwynn could have been on this sheet twice instead of garvey, but i only gave him one spot. i chose sweaty chris gwynn and his 1992 topps card to start the sheet rather than use his 1989 upper deck card a couple of spots later.

rick monday was hitting .292 with 13 homers and 39 rbi heading into july of 1978 when he was voted in by the fans to start the all-star game for the national league. by the end of july, he was hitting .258 and still had 13 homers and 39 rbi. still, he was able to secure the all-star banner on his 1979 topps card thanks to his decent first half and the ballot-stuffing dodger fans.

it was pretty cool for a dodger and steve garvey fan to open packs of 1981 fleer and find out that the garv had two cards in the set.  this one was part of what would become the 'superstar special' subset in later fleer releases, and it recognizes garvey for having the most hits in the national league in 1980.  or, as fleer puts it, "most hits nl".  willie wilson also got an extra card in '81 fleer, as he led all players in hits with 230 (30 more than garvey) as well as in runs scored.

mickey hatcher was ok during the 1988 regular season, but his 1988 topps card here reminds me of his world series heroics that year.  after hitting .293 with one home run in the regular season, hatcher hit .368 with 2 home runs in 5 games against the a's.  had hershiser not been lights out in two games, i am sure that hatcher would have been the mvp of the series.

tom goodwin's 1991 bowman card features the future dodger double dipper wearing the always cool dual-ear flap helmet.  cards like this made me feel closer to the big leagues thanks to the helmets i wore while playing baseball. steve garvey even wore the dual-ear flaps a few times.

rick sutcliffe's 1982 topps card was his last as a dodger, as he had been traded to the indians in december of 1981. all he did after that was lead the american league in era in '82 and then win the cy young in '84 after being traded to the cubbies. speaking of last topps cards as a dodger, here's steve garvey's 1983 flagship card.  at least garvey got the o-pee-chee team and text variation treatment that year, while sutcliffe's 1982 opc card was too far along when the trade was made for the good canadian card makers to slap on the 'traded' text and different team affiliation.

todd worrell was still on his way back from injury when he signed with the dodgers for the 1993 season. he missed a fair chunk of the early '93 campaign which is reflected in the stats on the back of his 1994 topps card.  by 1995, worrell was back to his old self, and he set the dodger single season record for saves - a mark he broke the following year.

final card on the page is the 2006 topps dodger team card. these are your wild card winning dodgers who got swept out of the nlds by the mets, except the card uses the team photo from 2005 so jim tracy is still there instead of grady little, along with other missing players.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2014 topps clayton kershaw at number 604, 1978 topps rick rhoden

at number 605, 1991 topps jim gott at number 606, 1989 upper deck chris gwynn

at number 607, 2009 topps heritage jon garland at number 608, 1991 bowman darryl strawberry at number 609, 1984 topps steve sax at number 610, 2005 topps brad penny at number 611, and 1991 upper deck dennis cook

at number 612.

my favorite card on the page:

i like the 'bonus' 1981 fleer garvey card, and his 1983 topps card also has meaning, but my favorite here is the rick monday card due to the all-star banner.

final thoughts:

that is a lot of pink/purple for the dodgers, even if the bowman design was the same for all teams. night owl did a study and noted this pink dodger phenomenon that thankfully ended with the 1988 set. let's hope it stays that way.

frankendodger sheet 58 (cards 514-522) - 22% canadian...

here's sheet number 58 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 514-522:

and the back:

these cards are:

514. 1967 topps john werhas
515. 1973 o-pee-chee andy messersmith
516. 1994 topps kevin gross
517. 2002 upper deck kazuhisa ishii
518. 1988 fleer orel hershiser
519. 1971 o-pee-chee willie crawford
520. 1994 upper deck chan ho park
521. 1980 topps ken brett
522. 1972 topps dodgers team

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be george brett's older brother's card - the only dodger card of ken brett issued during his playing days.

about the cards:

this duplicate of john werhas's 1967 topps card has a big ol' crease running across it. that's ok - it is a frankenset, after all.  the card is from the 6th series, but for some reason does not list werhas as a member of the california angels - the team to which he was traded to in may of '67.

the first of two o-pee-chee cards on the page is andy messersmith's 1973 card. if you look closely at the back,

you will see that while bill remains bill, and mike remains mike, andy translates to "andy" in french.

kevin gross is up next with his 1994 topps card. i think 1994 topps is one of their better releases of that decade. i didn't think much of it at the time, but that had a lot to do with the excessive glossiness of the cards.  i think with a couple of tweaks (the card stock and the font of the players' names), the design could be pretty solid, and i do like the backs.

kaz ishii was supposed to be a lefty hideo nomo, but wound up being more like a lefty hideki irabu.  that's probably not entirely fair, but he did walk a bunch of people.  i like this 2002 upper deck card because it showcases dodger stadium, complete with the retired number outfield wall murals (that's tommy lasorda to ishii's left), in the background.

the red, white, and blue design of 2002 upper deck is not as gaudy as that of 1988 fleer.  putting cards of orel hershiser from 1988 into the set just feels right, regardless of the card design.

now here's the second canadian card of the page - a 1971 o-pee-chee willie crawford card.  it's a little rough, but it's a dupe, and i am a fan of the yellow backs and the starburst head shot that makes these cards different from their topps counterparts.  and, in case you are wondering, willie is just willie in french - no quotations marks.

this chan ho park card is from the 'diamond debuts' subset in 1994 upper deck.  i assumed that the silhouette on the front was just a generic pitcher, but comparing the photo of park on the back to it, i now believe it is actually park. that's a level of effort that upper deck stopped aspiring to in their last few years producing baseball cards.

and now we have ken brett's 1980 topps card.  he was a good hitter, and he actually hit for himself in a game for the white sox during the 1976 season, rather than give way to a designated hitter.  the chisox also used him as a pinch-hitter a number of times.  i always thought that tommy lasorda should have used terry forster as a pinch-hitter more often, but i guess he had a couple of pinch-hitting specialists (manny mota and vic davalillo) on the roster already.  at any rate, the dodgers did not use brett as a pinch-hitter at all, although he was 3 for 11 at the plate during his time with them in 1979.

one of the things that i like about the 1972 topps dodger team card is that the photo looks like it was taken from the top of the 3rd base dugout at dodger stadium. you can see the low right field railing giving way to the bullpen in the background, and the dirt in front of the dugout in the foreground. it also looks like the visiting team is on the field and taking batting practice. it all makes for a more interesting card than the other team cards that followed with the more organized or staged photos taken in the outfield.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1983 donruss mark belanger at number 514, 1976 topps steve yeager at number 515, 1991 topps stadium club ramon martinez at number 516, 1992 bowman orel hershiser at number 517, 2003 upper deck 40 man hideo nomo at number 518. 1984 donruss dave sax

at number 519, 1994 fleer mike piazza at number 520, 1961 topps brother battery (norm and larry sherry)

at number 521, and 1961 dick farrell

at number 522.

my favorite card on the page:

the card i keep going back to here is the kaz ishii card. i just really like seeing the dodger stadium outfield pavilions and murals on cardboard, i guess.

final thoughts:

did you notice how much better topps had become at airbrushing the interlocking la logo onto hats between 1973

and 1980?

that is great progress!

frankendodger sheet 56 (cards 496-504) - brad penny, medium?...

here's sheet number 56 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 496-504:

and the back:

these cards are:

496. 1986 topps jay johnstone
497. 2008 topps heritage brad penny
498. 1975 topps al downing
499. 1988 donruss tracy woodson
500. 1994 upper deck mike piazza
501. 1992 fleer ultra tom candiotti
502. 1991 donruss eddie murray
503. 1993 pacific jody reed
504. 1977 topps dodgers team/tom lasorda

the "no brainer" of the day:

when looking at options for the hero number of 500, the 1994 upper deck piazza card stood out as the best (most reasonable) option - balancing duplicate availability with someone worthy of the number. that's as close to a no brainer as any of these cards are going to get.

about the cards:

jay johnstone was done as a big league ballplayer when his 1986 topps card was released. the previous season, johnstone had hit just .133 is 17 games in his second tenure with the dodgers, although he did make the postseason roster and had his final big league at bat in the nlcs against the cardinals.

brad penny earned an all-star card in 2008 topps heritage even though he wasn't the national league's starting pitcher in the 2007 all-star game.  that would have been jake peavy, who also won the 2007 nl cy young award (penny finished 3rd behind peavy and brandon webb).  penny had started the 2006 all-star game for the national league, becoming the first dodger pitcher to do so since hideo nomo in 1995.

it wasn't often that we got a posed photo inside dodger stadium back in the '70s or '80s, so i really like cards like this 1975 topps al downing.  it's also the reason i really like several dodger cards in the 1989 topps set.  downing's head is blocking our view of the three sisters palm trees, however.

tracy woodson and 1988 donruss make their first (only?) appearance in the frankenset.  both are pretty forgettable, although woodson has a world series championship ring and i do not.  in fact, his rbi groundout in the 7th inning of game 4 of the 1988 world series proved to be the game-winner, as the dodgers won that swing game 4-3.

mike piazza is preparing for a play at the plate on his 1994 upper deck card, which fills our fifth big hero number of the set.  piazza will be inducted into the hall of fame this coming weekend.  as night owl mentioned, it would have been nice for piazza to go into the hall with a team neutral cap, although i would prefer a backwards facing helmet!

there's not much to talk about regarding tom candiotti's 1992 fleer ultra card that hasn't already been said about other cards with similar images - dodger stadium, etc.  however, i will thank fleer for using a photo of tom with a knuckleball grip.  on second thought, perhaps it would be more interesting to see him with a different grip.

have you ever considered how much 1991 donruss resembles 1986 donruss? i hadn't until now, as i have not given much thought to 1991 donruss ever.  still, eddie murray's card here with the border design and the slanted bottom edge of the photo made me think of the max headroom set.

what do you think?

i took three years of spanish in high school, but i don't pretend to be able to understand the language. i used to find it curious that pacific, on jody reed's 1993 card and others, translated 'second' to 'segunda', but not 'base' to 'beis'.  after all, 'baseball' is 'beisbol' in spanish.  apparently that is all i know, because 'base' is 'base' in spanish.  apologies, pacific, for questioning your translation consistencies.

last card of the page is the 1977 topps dodgers team card that also features tom lasorda for the first time as their manager. it serves as the team checklist, too.  i am fairly wishy-washy about how i refer to this card. sometimes it's the team card, sometimes it's lasorda's card.  i would probably defer to it as the team card if i had to make a choice. for the purposes of this set, however, i am going to label it as a team card and a lasorda card.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1996 fleer ultra greg gagne at number 496, 1997 fleer mike piazza at number 497, 2005 topps jd drew

at number 498, 1987 donruss dennis powell at number 499, 1962 topps duke snider

at number 500, 1997 score mike piazza at number 501, 1963 topps daryl spencer at number 502, 1967 topps dodgers team at number 503, and 2001 topps bruce aven at number 504.

my favorite card on the page:

this is kind of a rough page, but i'll go with al downing's 1975 topps card as my favorite.  once again, it's tough to beat daytime at dodger stadium.

final thoughts:

brad penny had a couple of pretty good season for the dodgers after coming over from the marlins in the paul loduca trade.  he was an all-star two seasons in a row, and his 16 wins were enough to lead the league in 2006.  i wonder, however, did he have another talent outside of baseball?  i wonder this because of what is written on the back of his card above: "brad has gotten many pitching tips from the late hall of famer warren spahn".  knowing that both penny and spahn were from oklahoma, it is easy to understand how the two would have had conversations prior to spahn's passing in 2003, but had i not known of their oklahoma roots, i may have thought penny was channeling spahn's spirit for some pointers based on the text.

frankendodger sheet 29 (cards 253-261) - lasorda goes for a jog...

here's sheet number 29 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 253-261:

and the back:

these cards are:

253. 1977 topps john hale
254. 1989 o-pee-chee mickey hatcher
255. 1979 topps tommy john
256. 2003 topps omar daal
257. 2008 topps update casey blake
258. 1958 topps carl erskine
259. 1978 topps dodger team
260. 1981 topps ron cey
261. 1992 topps tom lasorda

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are a few cards that could hold this distinction, but the 1992 lasorda was a bit more of a sure thing for this set than any of them.

about the cards:

there were times as a young collector that i doubted whether the john hale on that 1977 topps card was the same john hale on this 1978 topps card

the stats on the back told me they were the same person, but i was thrown by the mustache.  i also believed that the curl in superman's hair was enough of a disguise to convince people that he wasn't clark kent.

1989 o-pee-chee, which brings us the only non-topps card of the page, was a godsend for dodger fans who were ticked off at not having any postseason cards in the 1982 sets, and were worried that 1989 would go by without recognizing the impossible that happened in october of 1988.  fleer and o-pee-chee came through for us, and so mickey hatcher's heroics live on in cardboard form.

the 1979 topps tommy john card was his last card as a dodger, and i am grateful for it.  topps also made a card of john as a yankee for the 1979 burger king set, and o-pee-chee did their text and team variation magic as well.  john's departure gave rick sutcliffe a chance, so it wasn't all bad in 1979.  another lefty, omar daal was 6-3 in 99 games (all in relief) for the dodgers during his first run in dodger blue, despite an era over 5 and a whip of 1.71.  he returned for the 2002 season and was used primarily as a starter, going 11-9 with a 3.90 era and 1.21 whip in 39 games, 23 of which were starts.

i knew of casey blake from his two stints with the twins in the early 2000's, but sort of stopped paying attention once the twins fully committed to corey koskie at third and released blake.  he wound up playing for the indians for a few seasons before ned colletti sent carlos santana and jon meloan to cleveland for blake during the 2008 season. clearly not the biggest acquisition that season (hello, manny ramirez), but blake held down the hot corner for the two nlcs runs the dodgers made in that season and the next.

i thought about sending this extra 1958 carl erskine card off to oisk to be signed, but i am glad i did not so it can sit here in the frankenset. on april 18, 1958 erskine started and won the first ever regular season game that the dodgers played in los angeles so it's good to have his card from that year here to represent.

i have said many times over the course of my blogging that the 1978 topps set was the first set that i actively bought packs of, the first set that i collected and completed, and the set that i hold most dear.  the 1978 topps dodgers were the focus of many a post at garvey cey russell lopes. when i first found this checklist card in a pack, i had probably a third of the individual player cards, and i spent a lot of time looking at the players in the team photo figuring out who was who and why not everyone on the front was listed on the back.  one of my favorite cards, to be sure.

just like erskine's 1958 card being historically significant, any 1981 ron cey card immediately brings to my mind the 1981 world series and cey's game 3 heroics - his first inning home run and his eighth inning diving catch of bobby murcer's bunt attempt - that led to his winning a third of the world series mvp award. great memories for me.

finally, we have tommy lasorda's fantastic 1992 topps card.  lasorda is shown with gary carter, kevin gross, john candelaria, orel hershiser, and bobby ojeda out for a spring training jog.  little did tommy know that he was in for a historically bad season that year.  bonus for the larger photo of dodger stadium on the back, too!

cards that didn't make the cut:

i considered using the 1993 donruss triple play card that features todd worrell and tim wallach (and jody reed on the back)

at number 253, but i sent all of my dupes of that card to a certain lawyer in new mexico.  other cards that fell short of the frankenset include tom lasorda's 1989 topps card at number 254, dusty baker's 1980 topps card

at number 255, 1987 donruss opening day dodger logo/checklist at number 256, 1992 leaf todd benzinger at number 257, 2011 topps update andre ethier at number 258, 1995 topps stadium club tim wallach

at number 259, 1967 topps jim lefebvre at number 260, and 2013 panini hometown heroes yasiel puig at number 261.

my favorite card on the page:

as happy as i was to find out that o-pee-chee made cards for the 1988 world series, the 1978 topps dodger team card is too near and dear to my heart to not be my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

before justin turner came along, casey blake's beard was the best known dodger facial hair. mike over at the left field pavilion had some "in beard we trust" shirts made up that caught on a bit.  today, no one would even look twice at blake's beard as brian wilson begat sean doolittle, etc.