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 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 18 (cards 154-162) - pinch hitting for tom goodwin...

here's sheet number 18 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 154-162:

 and the back:

these cards are:

154. 2004 bowman chin-feng chen
155. 1960 topps charlie neal
156. 2002 fleer tradition terry adams
157. 1970 topps manny mota
158. 2011 topps casey blake
159. 2010 topps update octavio dotel
160. 2005 donruss team heroes edwin jackson
161. 2000 upper deck spx tom goodwin
162. 1991 topps debut '90 dave walsh

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are a few strange or unusual cards (mostly errors) that received strong consideration for the set.  while the 1989 upper deck brian holton/shawn hillegas card did not make the set, i knew i wanted either the 2000 sp authentic or the spx tom goodwin/adrian beltre card in the set from the get go.  yes, that's adrian beltre batting on goodwin's card, with goodwin in the inset photo.

about the cards:

there was a time when chin-feng chen was my baseball salvation. then it was joel guzman and then matt kemp.  one of those guys lived up to the hype.  chen was out of the organization after the 2005 season with only 25 plate appearances under his belt.  charlie neal had more success with the dodgers.  his 1960 topps card was almost bumped to get wally moon's card from that set in at number 5, but i went with the '57 topps maglie there instead.

the 2002 fleer tradition adams card features a nice photo of the dodger pitcher suttoning. the dodgers had converted adams to a starter the previous season, and he was actually with the phillies when this card was released. fan favorite manny mota gets to represent the 1970 topps set, which is nice.  i started collecting in 1978 and soon thereafter went after dodger team sets starting in 1970, so this set is near and dear.  of the dodgers in the 1970 set, only mota, don sutton, and bill russell were still with the dodgers in 1978, so i was especially fond of their cards from that set.

the 2011 topps blake card features a pretty good photo, and i actually prefer the 2011 topps design on the horizontal cards.  the dotel card from the previous year's update set is the only card of him as a dodger that i am aware of.  it was not quite as much of a no brainer as the spx card, but i did want to get the well traveled dotel into the set.

i was at one of edwin jackson's early career starts.  it was in san francisco, and he held the giants scoreless in his six innings of work.  he gave up just two hits, but walked 8.  he struck out barry bonds twice, and hit him another time as the dodgers beat the giants 5-0.  it was a good day at the park, and i will give giant fans kudos for not hassling the many dodger fans like me who were in attendance. anyway, jackson's card here comes from the tail end of his dodger tenure, and i was surprised to find that he is still pitching (in miami) today. the marlins are jackson's 10th team, so he has a bit to go to catch up to mike morgan and dotel.

i wrote about the goodwin card before, so let's just go to dave walsh.  i liked the idea of these debut sets from the early 1990's as they were a vehicle to get me cards of new dodgers sooner, and they used as their basis the current topps flagship design.  not quite a traded set, but similar. it turns out that this set was a good thing, because walsh didn't get too many other cards. he was 1-0 for the dodgers in 1990 and that was it for his big league career.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were a few other cards considered for these spots, including nomar garciaparra's 2009 upper deck first edition card

at number 154, carl furillo's 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers card at number 155, 1985 leaf rick honeycutt at number 156, 1993 action packed tommy john at number 157, 1994 upper deck collector's choice eric karros

at number 158, 1978 o-pee-chee rick rhoden at number 159, 1992 upper deck minors todd hollandsworth

at number 160, 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee eric stults at number 161, and 1958 topps gil hodges at number 162.

my favorite card on the page:

manny mota's 1970 topps card is my favorite here, for reasons mentioned above. the first "vintage" set i put together was the 1970 set, and it remains one of my favorites, due mostly to sentimental reasons.

final thoughts:

seeing the neal and blake cards on this sheet make me think that i didn't try hard enough to get an all horizontal card sheet in the set.  shame on me.