frankendodger sheet 63 (cards 559-567) - do you prefer your fans blurry or out of focus?...

here's sheet number 63 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 559-567:

and the back:

these cards are:

559. 2004 upper deck brad penny
560. 1980 topps dave lopes
561. 1965 topps dodger rookies
562. 1978 topps glenn burke
563. 2008 topps ramon troncoso
564. 1997 fleer darren dreifort
565. 1981 topps burt hooton
566. 1976 topps ken mcmullen
567. 1995 score raul mondesi

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are a couple of spots on this sheet that were filled by the only card possible (outside of using the 1990 target set), but the 1978 topps glenn burke is not one of them. it is, however, the no brainer of the page.

about the cards:

the 2004 upper deck brad penny card is a curious one. after reading the book 'card sharks' about the origins of upper deck, i understood. upper deck had been sued by an umpire who had appeared on a card without compensation or permission. so, it stood to reason to me that these fans would be blurred out to avoid any of them suing upper deck. the problem there is that this blurring of fans on cards is inconsistent across upper deck's other releases, although it is done on other cards

in upper deck's second series (which includes this penny card).  topps clearly doesn't care, given all of the fans that are clearly visible on their cards featuring players reaching into the stands

to make catches.

the 1980 topps davey lopes card is the first card for lopes to include the all-star designation. lopes had made the 1978 all-star team as a reserve, but in 1979 he finally unseated joe morgan in the fan voting. in 1980, for the all-star game hosted by the dodgers (i think it's time for dodger stadium to host again, by the way), lopes was the leading vote getter in either league with over 3,000,000 votes - a couple of those were mine.

next up is jim lefebvre's 1965 topps rookie card. it features three other players - dennis daboll, mike kekich, and hector valle - but it was lefebvre who became the 1965 national league rookie of the year.  daboll was actually in the reds' organization when this card hit the streets, but never made it to the big leagues. kekich was 0-1 in his five appearances with the dodgers in '65, and he went on to be better known as one of the yankees who swapped wives in the early 70's.  for his part, valle appeared in just a handful of games that year (his only year in the majors) and hit .308. because of blogger's dumb 20 label rule, one of these guys is not going to be recognized with a label. i thought about just using a 'rookies' label, but no.  in the end, daboll gets left off of the label cloud since he didn't make it to the show.  blogger's rules, not mine.

glenn burke's 1978 topps card is a favorite of mine, since it is burke's only dodger card other than his 1990 target card.  if you haven't checked out the '30 for 30' piece on burke, i would encourage you to do so.  and, while you are at it, keep an eye out for the 1980 topps card that should have been that i created.

it makes an appearance in the documentary.

ramon troncoso's 2008 upper deck card fills the hole at number 563 and earns him a spot in the frankenset. troncoso pitched for the dodgers in parts of four seasons, including 3 scoreless appearances in the 2009 nlcs, before joining the white sox. he was back in the dodger organization last year, but didn't get the call up to the bigs.

you can see that darren dreifort's 1997 fleer card does bear a close resemblance to this year's stadium club release.

it makes one wonder how much attention is paid to previous sets when laying out card designs. was there noone at topps that recognized the similarities? doesn't upper deck own the fleer brand now? was this a dig at upper deck for using topps designs (they would say they used the o-pee-chee designs) in the past? the mind boggles.

burt hooton's 1981 topps card comes from the season that happy won the nlcs mvp for his 2-0 record against the expos.  hooton was actually good throughout the postseason that year - he was 1-0 against the astros in the nlds, pitching 7 innings and allowing just 3 hits and 1 run in the dodgers' must-win game 3, and then he went 1-1 against the yankees in the world series. he was the hard-luck loser in game 2 (the only run he allowed was unearned), but then picked up the win in the series clinching victory in game 6. in contrast to the brad penny card leading off the sheet, hooton's card comes with out of focus fans rather than blurry fans.

the 1976 topps ken mcmullen card is his last as a dodger as he would grace the '77 set as an oakland athletic. i'm somewhat surprised that mcmullen never surfaced in any of the fan favorite sets, nor was he included in the 2004 upper deck legends set as a member of the 1974 dodgers (even though i failed to mention that in the post) as he is a great ttm signer and would have been a great addition to any of those sets.  as for the card, i am not sure who number 72 is standing in the background. a minor leaguer/spring training invitee or coach? pretty likely to be the former, as the only coach i could think of that it might be is mark cresse, but he wore number 58.

last card of the sheet is the 1995 score raul mondesi hitter's inc. card.  mike piazza also has a card in this subset, but he doesn't look as angry as mondesi.  mondesi, meanwhile, is only the second most angry player in the set, behind albert belle

of course.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i don't believe there was any other option (aside from a card from the 1990 target dodgers set) at numbers 561 and 563, but other cards were considered to varying degrees were 1992 donruss darryl strawberry at number 559, 1989 score john tudor

at number 560, 1979 topps dusty baker

at number 562, 2004 topps total antonio perez at number 564, 1963 topps larry sherry at number 565, 1994 bowman orel hershiser at number 566, and 1971 topps walt alston

at number 567.

my favorite card on the page:

burke wins over penny and lopes.

final thoughts:

i linked above to the 1974 dodger team post over at timeless teams. i do fully intend to update that site with posts about the parallels and autos that the set featured, if for no other reason than to be completist about things.  look for those posts sometime this fall if you are so inclined. there might be a contest.

frankendodger sheet 51 (cards 451-459) - that is possibly the worst baseball card photo pose...

here's sheet number 51 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 451-459:

and the back:

these cards are:

451. 1995 score jeff treadway
452. 1987 fleer bill russell
453. 1998 upper deck mike piazza
454. 1994 bowman delino deshields
455. 1988 topps shawn hillegas
456. 2006 topps turkey red rafael furcal
457. 1968 topps jim lefebvre
458. 1993 donruss kevin gross
459. 1984 donruss burt hooton

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the 1987 fleer bill russell 'final tribute' card is about as close as we get to a no brainer on this page.

about the cards:

i think the 1995 score treadway would have worked better as a vertical card. at least that way, terry shumpert's head wouldn't have been cut off. bill russell's elbows might be cropped out of the photo on his 1987 fleer card, but with the angle of the image we get somewhat of a 'hero' shot on russell's final fleer card.  the shortstop of the team of my youth played in his last game in 1986, and i am pleased that two of the three major card companies (shame on you, donruss) came through with final tributes in 1987.

mike piazza had 7 cards in the 1998 upper deck set, not counting inserts.  all but one of those show piazza as a dodger, with the last having both a mets and marlins version.  so, all of the piazza cards in this set remind me of the trade that sent the strongest man in socal away.  i don't know what the 'upper echelon' foil on the front of this particular card from that set is all about, but i do appreciate the photo on the back. with all of the boring spring training photos we've been subjected to since the beginning of card creation, it's nice to see a different aspect of the dodgers' time in vero beach.

delino deshields looks a little washed out on his 1994 bowman card which makes me think of all the times that i heard vin scully refer to the 'shirtsleeves' crowd when a fielder missed a line drive.  shawn hillegas's 1988 topps card, however, makes me think of the fact that hillegas was traded to the white sox during the 1988 season, and so he missed out on, to paraphrase scully, the impossible happening.

next up is rafael furcal on a 2006 topps turkey red card.  furcal is displaying the worst pose ever used on a baseball card, in my opinion.  in the interest of full disclosure, however, there is a photo of me somewhere at my parents house wherein i am displaying the same unnatural baseball pose while standing in front of the outfield wall at dodger stadium.  ah, camera day.

speaking of poses, jim lefebvre's pose in the photo used for his 1968 topps card is different than the type of pose we usually see from infielders in that he has his glove turned the other way.  just an observation.  another observation i have is that the pitch kevin gross has thrown on his 1993 donruss cards looks like it is going to be high, but it is hard to tell for sure.

the last card of the page is a 1984 donruss burt hooton card that catches him throwing his signature knuckle-curve, along with his lean.  check out that grip!  and, is there another pitcher that leans back the way hooton used to? i can't think of anyone off the top of my head.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that i passed up include 2015 topps clayton kershaw

at number 451, 1993 fleer bob ojeda at number 452, 1991 topps lenny harris at number 453, 1994 pinnacle pedro astacio

at number 454, 2001 topps eric karros at number 455, 1995 topps stadium club tom candiotti at number 456, 2009 upper deck dodgers leaders (chad billingsley, matt kemp, james loney) at number 457, 1999 upper deck victory mike piazza

at number 458, and 1985 donruss mike scioscia at number 459.

my favorite card on the page:

since the piazza card makes me kind of sad, i'll say that the russell card is my favorite of these nine cards.

final thoughts:

the all-star break is here, and the dodgers have been playing well as of late.  unfortunately for us dodger fans, so have the giants.  i am hoping that kershaw is able to return right after the break, and also that corey seager doesn't lose his swing by participating in the home run derby.

frankendodger sheet 32 (cards 280-288) - with three consecutive rookies of the year...

i have updated this page since the original post ran.

here's sheet number 32 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 280-288:

and the back:

here's what the page originally looked like:

these cards are:

280. 1976 topps burt hooton
281. 2005 topps jim tracy 2004 topps jim tracy
282. 2002 leaf rookies & stars mike piazza
283. 1996 pinnacle raul mondesi
284. 1983 donruss fernando valenzuela
285. 1978 topps steve yeager
286. 1958 topps gino cimoli
287. 2009 topps greg maddux
288. 1971 topps joe moeller

the "no brainer" of the day:

i needed to get at least one jim tracy card in the set, but the no brainer here is greg maddux's 2009 topps card - it's his final tribute, after all.

about the cards:

burt "happy" hooton's first topps card as a dodger gives some insight into how he got his nickname.  hey, throwing that knuckle-curve required serious thought!  both jim tracy's 2004 and 2005 topps cards are numbered 281, and i originally went with his 2005 "opera man" card instead of the 2004  one with glenn hoffman standing next to him.  this was a mistake since i didn't include any other card of hoffman in the set and i wanted to include every dodger manager from alston on (at least). not that hoffman gets credit for being in the set, but at least i know he's there behind tracy on this card.

next up are three cards featuring dodger rookies of the year - 1993 roy mike piazza on a 2002 leaf rookies & stars award winners subset card (this card recognizes the strongest man in socal for winning the 1996 all-star game mvp award), 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 pinnacle hardball heroes subset card that teases us with 30/30 talk on the back (mondy did go 30/30 in both 1997 and 1999 - the first dodger to do so), and 1981 nl roy fernando valenzuela on his 1983 donruss card.  looks like fernando is standing in front of the giant (world's largest, actually) green screen that exists at universal studious hollywood.

as much as i've stared at steve yeager's 1978 topps card over the years, i've never been able to figure out who it is standing behind him.  i think this was the first topps card that showed yeager in his awesome 1970's sunglasses.  bonus.

the bat has gone missing on gino cimoli's 1958 topps card, thanks to the cutting process used to get the photos on to the color block background.  at least that's my assumption.  it would be a weird pose to strike without a bat in hand.

the 2009 topps maddux card is marred a bit by the photoshopping, but it's still a nice card with a photo angle that isn't used too much. i like seeing all the red text on the back for his league leading stats, and i am happy that i made it out to the metrodome to see him pitch in 2002, even if he didn't have his best stuff that night.  it turned out to be the longest game i've ever attended - 15 innings.

just as gino cimoli's bat was missing on his card on this sheet, the ball is missing from joe moeller's hand on his 1971 topps card.  of course, the ball is just be a prop with this overused pose.  it's too bad that the photographers didn't seem to want to hang out and actually watch/photograph spring training games.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1990 leaf orel hershiser at number 280, 2004 topps jim tracy at number 281, 1999 fleer tradition eric young at number 282, 1990 upper deck mickey hatcher at number 283, 2012 topps tony gwynn jr.

at number 284, 2001 topps archives bill buckner

at number 285, 1970 topps jack jenkins/bill buckner

at number 286, 1994 score mike sharperson at number 287, and 1966 topps bill singer/don sutton at number 288.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1978 topps steve yeager card takes the title for this page. i remember hoping to pull one of these from a pack for my team set during a 7-11 run in the summer of 1978, and was not disappointed.  good times.

final thoughts:

baseball is a funny game.  raul mondesi played in over 1,500 regular season games in his career.  he also appeared in two postseasons with the dodgers - 1995 and 1996 - and one with the yankees - 2002.  in each of those appearances, his teams failed to make it out of the division series.  his son, also named raul mondesi, made his major league debut in last year's world series, and he still hasn't played in a regular season game.

frankendodger sheet 5 (cards 37-45) - only one belongs at 42

here's sheet number 5 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 37-45:

 and the back:

these cards are:

37. 2009 topps allen & ginter's andre ethier
38. 1985 leaf orel hershiser
39. 1985 topps woolworths maury wills
40. 1984 topps dusty baker
41. 1978 topps burt hooton
42. 1997 topps jackie robinson
43. 1974 topps traded jim wynn
44. 1979 fritsch one year wonders roy gleason
45. 2003 topps 205 brian jordan

the "no brainer" of the day:

today's no brainer is the roy gleason card.  it's one of very few cards that the former dodger and army sergeant has had.  gleason appeared in a recent tristar obak set, but without the logos that are so visible on the fritsch card.  i still sponsor gleason's baseball reference page, and i would encourage you to learn about his story.

about the cards:

the hershiser card is one of his rookies, and it is the first card in this set that will be repeated later on.  that is to say, the 1985 donruss card of hershiser, which is identical to this one except for the leaf logo, will show up in a future post.

also showing up on this page are the left fielder of the team of my youth (dusty baker), as well as the first representative of the 1978 topps dodgers, burt hooton.  and there is, of course, jackie robinson at card number 42.  1997 was the first year that there wasn't a number 7 in the topps set. they had included a mickey mantle tribute type card in the 1996 set, and jackie received a similar card the following year, which was the 50th anniversary of his debut.  baseball retired number 42 that year, and i don't know if that decision had already been made when topps put together the checklist for the 1997 flagship set. it's a nice touch to put jackie there either way.

the brian jordan card is there by default due to the restrictions i put on the first 20 pages. it's probably my least favorite card in the set so far.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that were considered but cut due to either the lack of a double or the aforementioned rules and regulations i established for the first 20 pages of the frankenset include: 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts kirby higbe (#37), 1989 swell baseball greats jose morales (#38), 2009 upper deck goudey 4-in-1 matt kemp, rafael furcal, andre ethier, russell martin (#39), 1963 fleer tommy davis (#40), 1979 tcma the 1950's duke snider, gil hodges, roy campanella, carl furillo (#43), and 2005 topps all-time fan favorites dusty baker (#44).  i considered that baker card until i found the gleason - i had to buy two copies of the gleason to get it into this set, one of the few times i did that to get a specific card included as part of the frankenset.

my favorite card on the page:

there are lots of cards here that i like (8 of them, to be exact), but i'll anoint the gleason card (over the 1978 topps hooton) as my favorite.

final thoughts:

before anyone makes an issue of it, i will say that i put this set together ignoring the 't' in traded sets or the 'uh' in the latter-day update & highlights sets and the like.  it's the card number that matters, and i was happy to include the toy cannon and his 1974 topps traded card on this sheet.