frankendodger sheet 74 (cards 658-666) - let's find out which upper deck number of the beast makes the set...

here's sheet number 74 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 658-666:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 663 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number 74; front and back]

these cards are:

658. 1994 upper deck collector's choice todd hollandsworth
659. 1990 target jerry reuss
660. 1976 topps dave lopes
661. 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu
662. 1998 donruss collections preferred wilton guerrero
663. 1990 target paul richards2020 topps heritage high numbers alex wood
664. 1987 topps mike marshall
665. 1990 topps sandy koufax
666. 1989 upper deck kirk gibson

the "no brainer" of the day:

i knew that number 666 was going to be an upper deck card, and of the seven i had to choose from, the gibby was a no brainer.

about the cards:

upper deck was already over raul mondesi when they launched their collector's choice brand in 1994. while mondesi would go on to win the rookie of the year award that season, he had just a regular card in the set, and todd hollandsworth got this rookie class subset card instead.  holly would win the rookie of the year award two years later, but by then upper deck was all about karim garcia and wilton guerrero as far as dodger rookies were concerned.

it's time for another card from the 1990 target set to fill a hole. this time, it's friend of the blogging community jerry reuss.  i remember reading about reuss playing in a men's amateur baseball league following his retirement, but he was not allowed to pitch.  i played in a men's league for a few years and faced a few former minor league pitchers, and i can definitely understand amateurs not wanting to face a former big leaguer - the minor leaguers were tough enough.  i should point out that there was a card that i could have put here, but it is not the best (it's a plain fleer checklist), and knowing that reuss's target card was number 659, i chose reuss even though it puts two cards from target on this sheet.

this next card is, i believe, the final card of one of the infielders in this set. it's davey lopes's 1976 topps card.  there are no italics on the back of the card, but if there were, the stolen base totals for 1975 and 1976 would be italicized to denote the fact that lopes led the league in both of those seasons.  he finished third a couple of times later on, but never regained the top spot.  for his career, lopes ranks 26th all-time in steals and it looks to be a while before anyone bumps him to 27th.

hyun-jin ryu brings one of his multitude of 2013 topps cards to the set at number 661. this is the base version - i think there are three or four different photos for this card. it's nonsense, but i believe i have them all. i didn't pay much, but they should be even cheaper now with ryu having been injured for so long. i no longer actively chase photo variations, but may wind up getting a couple of the '42' variations in 2016 topps series 2.

1998 donruss collections returns with a preferred wilton guerrero card.  once again, these are just retooled cards from regular donruss issues, with all releases put into one set.  you have to look closely for the actual card number - it's not the number in the top corner, it's down below.

where i had an option at 659, there was no other alternative at 663 than a target card.  this one doesn't even feature a guy in a dodger uniform, as paul richards is shown in what i believe to be a white sox uniform (richards was their manager in the early 1950's and then again in 1976).  in fact, richards appeared in only three games for the 1932 brooklyn dodgers going 0 for 8 at the plate. he played for three other teams in the majors, with the last being the tigers in 1946. happy to have alex wood show up at 663 so that i could remove paul richards and his non-dodger uniform from the set. i was also happy to see wood return to the dodgers and help them win the 2020 fall classic. wood's photo here shows a bit of the 2020 all-star game patch that the dodgers wore during spring training prior to the pandemic.

mike marshall's 1987 topps card reminds me that his offensive production took a big step backwards in 1986.  he had hit 28 homers, driven in 95 runs, and posted a .293 average in 1985 - not on par with his minor league numbers, but still headed in the right direction.  in 1986, however, his average dropped by 60 points, and he played in 30 fewer games.  he rebounded a bit in 1987, getting his average back up to .294, but he never did get his slugging percentage back up to where it had been in 1985.  he had a reputation for not playing hurt, but for me, all that was forgotten with the 1988 world series and marshall's 3-run homer in game 2 to turn a 2-0 lead into 5-0 in the third inning.

it was a nice thing when topps started using old cards for the turn back the clock subsets in the late 1980's, and in 1990 we were treated to sandy koufax's 1965 card. at the time, i figured it was probably the only way that i would have that card in my collection, but i am happy to say that i was wrong.

still need one for the '65 set, though.

last card on the sheet is one of kirk gibson's 1989 upper deck cards. this one features him on his way to first base after hitting his walk-off home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series.  young gcrl is out there in the right field pavilion losing his mind and trying to take some pictures.  astute upper deck collectors noticed over the next few years that it was always a dodger at number 666 in the upper deck sets, and it was no coincidence as revealed in the 'card sharks' book. the guy who set the checklist for upper deck was a giants fan.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1974 topps lee lacy at number 658, 1988 fleer checklist at number 659, 1992 topps stadium club eric davis at number 660, 1983 topps bill russell

at number 661, 1989 upper deck kirk gibson at number 662, 1990 donruss alejandro pena at number 664, 1986 topps alejandro pena at number 665, and several upper deck flagship cards from 1990 through 1993,

and then again in 2002 and 2006

at number 666.

my favorite card on the page:

it's either the lopes or the gibson, and i have to go with world series heroics over the second baseman of the team of my youth.

final thoughts:

two of these cards are the last cards in their respective set - the 1976 topps lopes and the 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu - which drives home the point that there are not very many sets left to choose cards from. i didn't realize in 1978 that it was the first year for the 726 card set size. had i really started collecting in 1977 (i was given my first pack of cards that year), this frankenset would have ended with davey lopes up there.  as it is, we get a few more pages.

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 43 (cards 379-387) - maury and manny side by side opens my eyes...

here's sheet number 43 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 379-387:

and the back:

these cards are:

379. 1969 topps ken boyer
380. 2007 topps jason schmidt
381. 2006 topps odalis perez
382. 2001 topps kirk gibson
383. 1996 pinnacle wilton guerrero
384. 2014 topps heritage andre ethier
385. 1971 topps maury wills
386. 1977 topps manny mota
387. 1959 topps don drysdale

the "no brainer" of the day:

ken boyer's 1969 topps card is the only one (if you don't count the o-pee-chee version which has the same number so the question is moot) of him from his active career as a dodger. it was going to be in the set.

about the cards:

that boyer card confused me quite a bit when it first found its way into my collection. the back is different from most other 1969 topps cards,

and certainly any other one that i had seen at that point. there is no topps logo or cartoon, and the text box doesn't include his name and height/weight etc, but rather his factoid. it still seems like a bit of an anomaly now, but at least i know that others like it exist, such as mickey mantle's final tribute.

anyway, boyer was a former nl mvp who joined the dodgers for the last two seasons of his career (1968 and 1969). he did not appear in the 1970 topps set, which is unfortunate.

i  bought a lot of 2007 topps, and it was the first set i put together by hand in a few years. i didn't care for it too much, but i put a want list up shortly after starting to blog, and several folks helped out.  i still bought a factory set as i had done since the mid 1990's.  anyway, jason schmidt is repping the set here, and he had some pretty good years with the giants before joining the dodgers for the 2007 season.  unfortunately, he was unable to stay healthy and only pitched in a handful of games for the dodgers in 2007 and 2009 combined (he missed all of 2008 due to injury). when he did pitch, he did much better on the road than in dodger stadium - he was 0-4 with an era of 10.83 in his four starts at chavez ravine in 2007 and 1-0 with an era of 0.82 in his two starts on the road that year. in 2009, the trend continued as he was 1-2 with an era of 8.49 in his three home starts and 1-0 with a 0.00 era in his lone road start that year.

2006 topps makes its first appearance in the frankenset today, thanks to odalis perez. perez was my last hope for the dodgers to see some return on the gary sheffield trade.  i was quite disappointed when fox traded mike piazza to the marlins, but they did get sheffield in return who put up some of the best offensive seasons the dodgers had ever seen.  the other parts of that trade (bobby bonilla, charles johnson, jim eisenreich) dead-ended, and perez was part of the package (along with brian jordan) that the dodgers when sheffield was dealt to the braves.  jordan left via free agency, and after a couple of decent seasons from perez that got my hopes up, he had some mediocre campaigns and the dodgers sent him to the royals for elmer dessens during the 2006 season.  still, i have a soft spot for perez because he gave me a ball at angel stadium on june 30, 2006 - about a month before he was traded.

i was happy to see that topps considered kirk gibson's 1988 world series home run to be a 'golden moment' for their 2001 subset along with hank aaron's 715th career home run, bill mazeroski's world series winning home run, and kerry wood's 20 strikeout game, among other events.  i was even more pleased to see topps finally recognize nomar's home run

in the 4+1 game this year.

there is a well known saying regarding player development in the dominican republic that "you don't walk your way off the island", and wilton guerrero is an example of that philosophy.  he had a bunch of rookie cards in 1996, including this 1996 pinnacle card, as he was in line with a wave of young talent that the dodgers debuted in the '90s, kind of similar to what we are seeing from the cubs today. guerrero had only a few at bats with the dodgers in 1996, but spent most of 1997 with the big club and hit .291 that year.  unfortunately, he walked only 8 times so his obp was just .305.  even his brother, vladimir (a notorious hacker), took a walk more often.  he was traded to the expos during the following season.

next we have andre ethier's 2014 topps heritage card. i read over the weekend that ethier's return to the dodgers is not certain for this season.  that is too bad on a couple of opposing fronts.  first, he is now a 10 and 5 player, and the dodgers have literally nothing to show for not trading him prior to his gaining that status this past off season. second, we have not been able to see ethier build on his comeback season last year. i am more disappointed in the latter.

the next two cards are somewhat tied together. i'll explain a bit more in the "final thoughts" below, but maury wills (shown on his 1971 topps card) and manny mota (shown on his 1977 topps card) were traded together by the expos to the dodgers in 1969.  it was wills' second time around with the team and he played well enough to reclaim the shortstop position for a couple of seasons.  in 1971, in fact, he finished 6th in the league mvp voting, right behind roberto clemente.  mota, on the other hand, was the dodgers' primary left fielder in 1970 (and an all-star in 1973), but gradually saw his playing time decrease to the point of him being a pinch-hitting specialist by the time this card was issued.  it's worth noting that mota is striking a very similar pose to wills on his card, and the photo might even be from the same stadium.

speaking of stadiums, the 1959 topps don drysdale card features a photo from inside the la memorial coliseum which was the home of the dodgers for four years before dodger stadium opened.  the back of the card notes that his nickname is 'airedale' but i only ever heard him referred to as 'big d'.  of course, he was finished pitching by the time i was born.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some other options that i considered but did not choose for this page include 1998 fleer tradition todd hollandsworth

at number 379, 1989 o-pee-chee orel hershiser (world series) at number 380, 1967 topps dick schofield

at number 381, 1994 topps mitch webster at number 382, 1963 topps pete richert at number 383, 1993 score select lenny harris

at number 384, 1993 upper deck eric karros at number 385, 1976 topps ed goodson at number 386, and 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary retrospective pedro martinez at number 387.

my favorite card on the page:

i think the scuffed up drysdale wins over the '77 mota.  i do like the 2001 gibson, but there are other cards depicting the impossible that i like better, such as the 1995 upper deck sp championship series card

even if it is the same photo.

final thoughts:

i don't think that i ever gave it much thought before, but seeing the 1971 topps card next to the 1977 topps card, i am made aware of how similar the designs are.  turn the black border to white, italicize the team name, capitalize the player name and position, but those are minor tweaks. the biggest change, of course, is the position in the pennant on the '77 card and i suppose that is why i never thought much about the similarities between the two.

i have considered the 1974 and 1980 designs as very similar, as well as the 1975 and 1986 (just without all of the different colors) designs (and the 1962 and 1987 sets are the most obvious), but i never associated the 1971 and 1977 sets this way.

frankendodger sheet 31 (cards 271-279) - it's the base on balls that makes it so bad...

here's sheet number 31 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 271-279:

and the back:

these cards are:

271. 2003 bowman leigh neuage
272. 1997 donruss todd zeile
273. 2004 topps heritage jeromy burnitz
274. 1995 pinnacle ramon martinez
275. 1984 donruss jose morales
276. 2010 upper deck doug mientkiewicz
277. 1989 topps mike davis
278. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams kirk gibson
279. 1991 topps jose gonzalez (billy bean)

the "no brainer" of the day:

there is only one card of doug mientkiewicz as a dodger, and, since i used to have a pc of the guy, his 2010 upper deck card was a certainty for this set.

about the cards:

the bowman neuage card brings up thoughts of what might have been had neuage not passed away in 2003. i posted the chrome version of his card on my flagship blog, and shortly thereafter received an email from neuage's father relaying the news and providing a link to his online memorial.

todd zeile has two cards in the 1997 donruss set, and when i chose his card to fill this slot i realized that i only had one copy. i ordered another from sportlots, but chose the wrong one.  hate when that happens.  i finally got it right with my next order.  jeromy burnitz's 2004 topps heritage card is not his best card from 2004 (we'll see that one later on) but it fits in the set so there it is.

i may be in the minority, but i prefer the pinnacle cards like this 1995 ramon martinez over the black bordered sets they put out in the early 1990's.  i also prefer 1984 donruss to all other donruss sets of the 80's and 90's.  that jose morales card is great.  i assume that gary carter is crouching behind the plate, and the card features a shot we don't see too often on baseball cards.  also, it's great that donruss listed morales as a catcher, but he never went behind the plate during his dodger tenure which began in 1982.

doug mientkiewicz was probably my favorite player on the twins in the early 2000's, and i was happy that he was able to take his gold glove to boston and win a ring in 2004, adding to the gold medal he won in 2000 thanks to his home run heroics.  i was also glad to see him with the dodgers in 2009. i met him once at a card show and talked to him for a few minutes.  he had a few tommy stories to tell (lasorda was the manager of the 2000 olympic team) and mentioned that disney had been kicking around the idea of a movie about that team.  it would be interesting to see who they would have cast as lasorda.

and now we get to the happy circumstance that puts a 1989 topps mike davis card in front of a 2004 upper deck legends kirk gibson card.  one can't help but think of davis batting in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 1 of the 1988 world series with two outs and drawing the walk that made gibby's impossible home run possible.  after the radio silence and vin scully's improbable/impossible quote, joe garagiola noted that it was davis's walk that turned the home run into a game winner.  davis also homered later in the series, and what had been a frustrating season for him turned out to be one that is still celebrated by dodger fans.

finally, we have the 1991 topps  jose gonzalez card that actually features a photo of billy bean.  outside of the 1990 target set, there is no other card that i know of that shows bean as a dodger.  it's too bad that he doesn't get the name credit.  these days, bean is mlb's ambassador of inclusion which is great except that it is unfortunate that such a position is needed at all.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were quite a few cards that could have been on this sheet, including a number of topps flagship cards like 2002 topps chan ho park at number 271, 1977 topps lee lacy

at number 272, 1983 topps mark belanger

at number 273, 1984 topps rick monday at number 274, 2011 topps clayton kershaw at number 275, 1967 topps bruce brubaker at number 276, 1988 topps alejandro pena at number 277, 1960 topps stan williams at number 278, and 1991 topps jose gonzalez (that really is jose gonzalez)

at number 279.

my favorite card on the page:

despite a few good ones here, i'll perhaps surprise folks and pick the morales card over dougie, gibby, and billy/jose.

final thoughts:

it is unlikely that we will hear vin scully call the world series this season, at least for national radio as he did in 1988 among other years.  he has already turned down an invitation to broadcast (or even be part of) the all-star game, and it doesn't seem likely that the dodgers will win the pennant given the fact that they don't win very much unless kershaw is on the mound. hopefully, they pull it together and "win for vin".

frankendodger sheet 2 (cards 10-18) - insert the inserts...

here's sheet number 2 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 10-18:

and the back:

these cards are:

10. 1973 topps don sutton
11. 2000 upper deck eric gagne
12. 1968 topps game claude osteen
13. 1990 mother's cookies dodgers kirk gibson
14. 2008 donruss threads carl erskine
15. 2003 topps stadium club shawn green
16. 1992 donruss eric karros
17. 1970 topps booklet bill singer
18. 1992 upper deck pedro martinez

the "no brainer" of the day:

for this sheet, there really isn't a card here that i knew had to be in the set, but i did want to get don sutton in as soon as possible.  as the only hall of famer from the team of my youth, he deserved a spot early on.

about the cards:

i wasn't sure i was going to use inserts in this set, but here we have two of them on the second sheet!  i have quite a few copies of the osteen card (including one in my double play binder), but not as many as i have of the tommy davis card from that insert set.  davis is hatless on the set, and so his team affiliation is unclear and i suppose many folks think of him as a dodger and send the card my way.  however, davis was included in the flagship set that year as a member of the white sox, so let's send those cards to 2x3 heroes instead.

the other insert implied by the title is the bill singer booklet in all of its diamond cut glory.

there are a lot of pitchers on this sheet (with erskine bringing the first unlicensed card to the set), along with a rookie of the year, and a guy who was at one time my favorite dodger.

cards that didn't make the cut:

with the players and sets featured on the first sheet off the board, there were less cards to choose from - and there are a bunch of piazza cards that would have fit on this sheet.  a few cards that did receive some consideration here included osteen's 1971 topps and/or o-pee-chee card at number 10 (but he lost out to sutton), arky vaughn's 1960 fleer card at number 11, the 1967 topps jim campanis/bill singer rookie at number 12, jody reed's 1994 topps stadium club card and willie keeler's 2012 panini cooperstown card at number 13, a sweet 1982 cracker jack duke snider oddball card at number 15, and a 1960 leaf jim gilliam card at number 18.  all gave way to what you see above for one reason or another.  in fact, the reed card was in the set up until last month when i juggled a couple cards around to make room for a new card number 24.  i'll tell that story in the next post.

my favorite card on the page:

had it not been bumped for the gibson, the aforementioned jody reed card may have taken the prize for this sheet.  after all, it's a double play turn in dodger stadium. what's not to like?  however, given the nine cards that made the sheet, i'll go with the card that replaced reed.  a kirk gibson action shot during a day game in dodger stadium.  it's nice.

final thoughts:

i think there are a total of three parallel cards later on in the set, but the osteen and singer cards are the only true inserts in my frankenset.