frankendodger sheet 50 (cards 442-450) - a nice crop of cards...

here's sheet number 50 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 442-450:

and the back:

these cards are:

442. 1993 leaf carlos hernandez
443. 1996 upper deck collector's choice wilton guerrero
444. 1982 topps terry forster
445. 1990 upper deck fernando valenzuela
446. 1970 topps billy grabarkewitz
447. 2001 topps eric gagne
448. 1993 score john candelaria
449. 2005 topps chrome brad penny
450. 2013 topps heritage walmart blue border matt kemp

the "no brainer" of the day:

it may not be a no brainer, but the 1990 upper deck valenzuela card is the closest thing this page has got.

about the cards:

one thing that i've noticed with most of the cards on this page is the cropping of the photo. that's what i will focus my commentary on, starting with the 1993 leaf carlos hernandez card.  hernandez himself is relegated to the bottom half of his card, but that is so that we can see the full body of the umpire emphatically calling the runner out at the plate.  too often the umpire is cut off mid torso and just becomes background noise. here, the ump is part of the story that the card is telling.  i like it.

the 1996 collector's choice wilton guerrero card doesn't have much of a photo, thanks to the patriotic background, but there is enough to appreciate the folks at upper deck for leaving in the base (presumably second) that guerrero is stepping on, as well as cropping the image so that his right hand is still in the frame.

topps can and has manipulated facsimile autos, so it seems unlikely that the 1982 terry forster card was laid out specifically to accommodate a stacked auto. i appreciate the action photo and full body shot though.

upper deck maximized the photo of fernando valenzuela at the bat on his 1990 card without losing any body parts (except for his right foot behind the logo) or the bat. i like the way his left foot looks to be aligned with the border.

there are other things to discuss regarding billy grabarkewitz's 1970 topps card than the cropping (which leaves something to be desired) like the fact that his name is too long to fit with this design, and the image used looks like it could be used in an austin powers skit. danny ozark walked into the shot at exactly the wrong time.

eric gagne's 2001 topps card features a photo cropped so that the baseball is visible. i generally like these sorts of images.

john candelaria's 1993 score card also does a good job of giving us a full view of him in delivery mode. i remember candelaria as a slinger, and the way his arm is positioned certainly seems to imply that his delivery is less than three-quarters.  i don't remember brad penny that way, but on his 2005 topps chrome card he doesn't seem to have his right arm positioned to throw from over the top unless he pulls a rick sutcliffe type move.  when i tried to pitch like sutcliffe, it felt like my arm couldn't catch up with my body so i typically was closer to what terry forster is doing with the elbow up.  if you'll recall, 2004 topps really went after the full body shots, and 2005 topps had a few as well, such as the image used for penny's flagship and chrome cards. i appreciate the fact that it is more tightly cropped than many of the 2004 cards.

last up is the walmart blue parallel of matt kemp's 2013 topps heritage card. it was easier for me to find a double of this insert than the regular high number base. this is the last insert of the frankenset, i believe. topps did well, i think, with the 2013 heritage set. kemp's head barging into the header is consistent

with the original 1964 set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that tried but failed to make this page include 1973 topps dick dietz

at number 442, 1998 topps dennis reyes at number 443, 1987 fleer ken landreaux at number 444, 1967 topps don sutton

at number 445, 1996 score delino deshields at number 446, 2001 fleer platinum shawn green at number 447, 1977 topps ellie rodriguez at number 448, 1997 topps chad curtis at number 449, and 1993 topps darryl strawberry at number 450.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1990 upper deck fernando valenzuela wins. it may well be my second favorite fernando card from his playing days, right behind his 1991 topps card.

final thoughts:

mentioning forster's facsimile signature above got me thinking. i hope topps is done putting these things on cards (other than heritage and archives which pay homage to past sets). i believe 2008 was the last time they showed up in flagship.  let's keep it that way, as they often get in the way or are totally undecipherable.

frankendodger sheet 39 (cards 343-351) - with my favorite card...

here's sheet number 39 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 343-351:

and the back:

these cards are:

343. 1985 topps bill russell
344. 1991 leaf alfredo griffin
345. 2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra
346. 1967 topps jim hickman
347. 1978 topps terry forster
348. 1996 topps stadium club ismael valdes
349. 1986 o-pee-chee ken howell
350. 1978 topps steve garvey
351. 2016 topps chase utley

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card. duh.

about the cards:

i am still not a fan of the 1985 topps design, but there is nothing to be done about it.  bill russell gets listed as a shortstop by topps, and that's fair; however, he was playing less and less time there and more in the outfield.  in '85, russell played almost as much outfield as he did short, and somewhat surprisingly, topps listed him as "ss-of" on his 1986 card.  credit where credit is due.

i don't think i bought any packs of 1990 or 1991 or even 1992 leaf in real time. i did buy a lot of '93 leaf, though.  anyway, this alfredo griffin card most likely didn't enter my collection until the mid-2000's or later. griffin is/was one in a long line of shortstops to try to fill russell's cleats.  he was able to join russell as a world champion dodger shortstop, which is a fairly exclusive club.

nomar garciaparra, somewhat surprisingly, did not play shortstop for the dodgers at all until his third and final season with the club.  his 2006 season was better than could have reasonably been expected, which made the next two tougher to take.  i remember watching some of his last at bats with the dodgers during the 2008 playoffs and cringing a bit.  still, i wish there were more nomar as a dodger cards, and i am happy that upper deck made two cards per player in their 2007 set.

jim hickman was only with the dodgers in 1967 as a result of a trade with the mets that occurred on november 22, 1966, so i am thankful that topps had hickman in a later series and was able to show him as a dodger. he had much greater success later in his career with the cubs (his 1970 season was pretty darn good - 32 homers, 115 rbi, .305 average), but perhaps the highlight of his career occurred while wearing dodger blue.  hickman, an outfielder by trade, played a bit in the infield as well, but was called upon to pitch the last 2 innings of a game against the giants in june of 1967.  he faced just 7 batters and allowed 2 hits (one batter singled but was thrown out at second going for a double).  one of those hits was a home run by willie mays.  i think that would be a pretty good story for the grandchildren.

like hickman, terry forster was acquired by the dodgers on november 22.  that was in 1977, however, and was also early enough in the card production process for forster's photo to be airbrushed and have his team affiliation switched from the pirates to the dodgers despite the lack of multiple card series.  i am guessing that the checklist was already set, however, as i see it as an anomaly for topps to put two cards featuring players from the same team so close together in the set back then.  my point being that forster's card was supposed to be a pirate card.  as far as i can tell, the cutoff point for team changes was december 3, 1977.  that was the day that ron schueler signed with the white sox - the team that he is affiliated with in the 1978 topps set - and two days before bobby bonds was traded by the angels (with whom bonds is affiliated in the set) to the white sox.  thank goodness for o-pee-chee!

it would have been nice of topps to crop the photo on ismael valdes' 1996 stadium club card just a little bit differently so that it would appear that he was striding over the stadium club logo as if it were lava.  ken howell's 1986 o-pee-chee card is pretty much a non-event. it looks like the photographer is standing between howell and wherever it is howell would rather be.

for my money, the 1978 topps steve garvey card is the greatest card ever made.  not objectively, but subjectively anyway.  i think it is the perfect baseball card. to pull this card from a pack in 1978 while living in dodger territory was just about the best thing i could hope for as a seven year old collector.

finally, chase utley represents 2016 topps in the set. i was surprised utley was re-signed by the dodgers for 2016, but he's played fairly well.  sooner or later, however, the dodgers will need to get second base figured out for the long term. this was the first 2016 card to be added to the set, and was later joined by the walter o'malley card from panini seen earlier on. i think i will probably add another. we'll see.

cards that didn't make the cut:

a couple of these cards had no chance to make the set, but they were still options:  1994 topps finest pedro astacio at number 343, 1961 topps sandy koufax at number 344, 1977 topps reggie smith

at number 345, 1993 o-pee-chee mike sharperson at number 346, 1979 topps doug rau

at number 347, 1962 topps larry burright

at number 348, 2000 upper deck victory eric gagne at number 349, 2015 topps yasiel puig at number 350, and 1979 o-pee-chee bill north at number 351.

my favorite card on the page:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card, which is also my favorite card of all time.

final thoughts:

i am not completely comfortable with two 1978 topps cards on the same page, but that is what i chose when putting this thing together.  i want terry forster in the set; the 1978 topps dodgers pretty much get preference over other cards in the set; and there was no way that garvey's card wasn't making it.  i blame topps for putting two dodgers so close together on the checklist - even if one of the cards was certainly a pirate card when the checklist was being developed.