frankendodger sheet 44 (cards 388-396) - night owl's favorite card makes the cut...

here's sheet number 44 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 388-396:

and the back:

these cards are:

388. 1998 donruss paul konerko
389. 1998 pacific online gary sheffield
390. 1975 topps ron cey
391. 2008 upper deck first edition blake dewitt
392. 2010 topps carlos monasterios
393. 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio
394. 1989 topps orel hershiser
395. 1990 fleer alfredo griffin
396. 1998 upper deck collector's choice todd zeile

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the pacific online sheffield checklist.  i have foregone all of the other dodger cards in the online set because i knew i had doubles of this card and it is so "pacific". i like the big dodger logo right in the center of this card, too.

about the cards:

paul konerko makes his first (and only) appearance in the set via a card from 1998 donruss. spirit of the game was originally an insert set, but at some point donruss made it a subset of the regular set. konerko took his spirit to cincinnati at the 1998 all-star break before settling in with the white sox for a very productive career.

gary sheffield got front billing (and deservedly so) for the dodger team checklist in the 1998 pacific online set.  this was a great set, with 29 dodgers represented, including short-timers like thomas howard, matt luke, tom prince, and trenidad hubbard.  i never did check out any of the links when they were active - i wonder what they looked like.

next up is night owl's favorite card - the 1975 topps ron cey.  he has discussed the fantastic-ness of this card many times, so i won't try to tell you anything more about it. instead, i'll reiterate my opinion that the pants blake dewitt is wearing on his 2008 upper deck first edition card are the worst baseball pants of all time. i think they look terrible, and i am not a crabby old fart.  carlos monasterios is also wearing bad baseball pants on his 2010 topps card.  i prefer his 2010 bowman card

but it isn't numbered 392.

pedro astacio gets the call to represent 1995 fleer ultra, which is about two years before i would say the set actually became anything special.  my favorite thing about astacio is they way he used to wiggle his arm as it hung from his side while he was checking the signs.   i also "threw" a no-hitter with him on the old tony larussa baseball game for pc in the late 1990's.

there were a lot of orel hershiser cards issued in 1989, and this topps all-star card is one of them. hershiser was the nl rhp in the subset, and kirk gibson was the pinch hitter, as opposed to the dh for the american league. i thought that was a nice touch by topps.

alfredo griffin's 1990 fleer set is, like the rest of the set in my opinion, forgettable. griffin had a much better year in 1989 than he had in 1988 at the plate, but the ring is the thing, and by that account 1988 was a much better season.

last card of this page is the 1998 collector's choice todd zeile.  zeile looks like he might be boning his bat (that's something players did back in the day, with mark grace apparently preferring a cow femur).  i like most of all the fact that this card displays the jackie robinson patch that the dodgers wore in 1997, although it is not my favorite card to do so.

cards that didn't make the cut:

those that tried and failed include 2011 topps kenley jansen (with a lurking davey lopes as the phillies' first base coach)

at number 388, 1960 topps maury wills (luis swipes base)

at number 389, 1972 topps willie davis at number 390, 1973 topps lee lacy at number 391, 1996 topps stadium club tom candiotti at number 392, 1998 upper deck collector's choice jose vizcaino at number 393, 1992 bowman dave anderson at number 394, 1990 score willie randolph at number 395, and 1997 upper deck greg gagne (with future dodger rickey henderson!)

at number 396.

my favorite card on the page:

the red background on the todd zeile card, along with the jackie robinson patch, puts this one on top for me.  you know i like that card if i passed on the gagne card to get it in the set.

final thoughts:

seeing the gagne card reminds me that i wanted to get rickey into the set, but did not do so.  i took another look at his dodger cards, and i think i've found a spot for him.  i actually have 4 or 5 cards to replace, and i'll update all of the posts accordingly.

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.