frankendodger sheet 60 (cards 532-540) - in with the new...

here's sheet number 60 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 532-540:

and the back:

these cards are:

532. 1983 topps dave stewart
533. 1984 topps ken landreaux
534. 1993 bowman roger cedeno
535. 1970 topps andy kosco
536. 2016 topps alex wood
537. 1992 topps stadium club bob ojeda
538. 1994 bowman raul mondesi
539. 1978 topps vic davalillo
540. 2009 topps russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the '78 vic davalillo card qualifies, but i added the wood card as soon as i pulled it from a series 2 pack a few weeks ago. it bumped a 1983 donruss tom niedenfuer in case you were wondering.  in with the new, out with the '83 donruss.  i guess it was a card i niedenfuer frankensets.

about the cards:

right off the bat we get to see the topps design progression from 1983 to 1984 thanks to dave stewart and ken landreaux.  the commonality of the smaller picture on the front - from porthole to picture in picture - is obvious, but i would have liked the '84 to play off of the 1964 design just as the '83 cards are somewhat related to the 1963 design.  i bought way more of 1983 topps than 1984 topps which had some to do with the designs, but also had to do with how much i liked 1984 donruss.

1993 bowman put roger cedeno in the bushes. the only fully green background i want to see on a baseball card is either the wrigley field ivy or the green monster in fenway. don't put players in the jungle.

the photo used for andy kosco's 1970 topps card was likely taken around the same time as billy grabarkewitz's and jeff torborg's, but without danny ozark in the background.

alex wood got a nice card in 2016 topps series 2. i am not the biggest fan of the card design, but the dodger bullpen in the background provides a nice contrast to the home whites. it's too bad he hasn't been able to stay healthy - it was just announced that he needs surgery and will be out for a couple of months.

bob ojeda's 1992 topps stadium club card is decent enough, and i like that topps put each player's rookie card on the back. it doesn't mean, as far as my collection goes, that this is a red sox card, however.

1994 bowman - two consecutive years of bowman represented here on the page - is pretty different from the previous year's design. i didn't know much about mondesi going into the 1994 season, but he had a decent consecutive game hitting streak in may of that year that got me interested, and he went on to win the rookie of the year in the strike-shortened season.

i would guess that the photo used for vic davalillo's 1978 topps card came from the same time as the photos for his 1974 topps card,

or maybe spring training of 1974.  the a's released davalillo in may of that year, and he was playing in the mexican league until the dodgers signed him during the 1977 campaign.  his 1979 topps card (and his 1981 fleer card!) shows him clean shaven, which is how i remember him as a dodger.

last card on the page is russell martin's 2009 topps card which shows him taking the brunt of a play at the plate. it's been well documented that martin has some great cards, and this is one of them.  however, it's not his best play at the plate card - that would be the 2008 stadium club card included in the link above.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1992 upper deck jose offerman at number 532, 1968 topps wes parker at number 533, 1991 donruss gary thomasson

at number 534, 1994 donruss cory snyder at number 535, 1983 donruss niedenfuer (the card at least makes this part of the post)

at number 536, 1963 topps ken mcmullen (as if i had a double)

at number 537, 1991 topps stadium club john candelaria

at number 538, 1995 donruss tim wallach at number 539, and 2008 upper deck andruw jones at number 540.

my favorite card on the page:

alex wood's card wins over russell martin's card. perhaps it's because martin has better cards, although that's not entirely fair. well, guess what. life isn't fair.

final thoughts:

i'm still not sure about my ken mcmullen rookie. i have to assume it's a reprint until i have it authenticated, even though it looks great when i compare it to other 1963 topps cards. i tested the guy i bought it from, and i am pretty sure that he believed it to be genuine. if it is, it wouldn't be worth the $130,000 that someone threw down on ebay this week, but it would be worth more than i paid for it.

frankendodger sheet 38 (cards 334-342) - first card, last card...

here's sheet number 38 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 334-342:

and the back:

these cards are:

334. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee russell martin
335. 1998 pacific crown collection otis nixon
336. 2004 topps eric gagne
337. 1986 donruss terry whitfield
338. 1982 topps davey lopes
339. 2003 upper deck vintage daryle ward
340. 2001 topps davey johnson
341. 1971 topps steve garvey
342. 1993 topps stadium club billy ashley

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose steve garvey's rookie card was always going to be number 341 in the set, but davey johnson's managerial card was also a sure thing. still, tough to be more of a no brainer than the '71 topps garvey.

about the cards:

i am pretty sure that the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set was supposed to use the 1977 topps/opc design.  the previews that they put out that year used the same design as what you see on the martin card above, but were referred to on checklists as "1977 o-pee-chee previews".  the backs sure looked like 1977 backs,

and you can see by the martin card that upper deck changed the backs before issuing the actual set.

otis nixon's 1998 pacific crown collection is a nice card - day game at dodger stadium is always a good choice for a card photo - and it reminds me of a story i heard a couple of weeks ago.  nixon played for the twins at one point in his career, and one of the local baseball scribes noted that in one of his first appearances for the team, the public address announcer called him amos otis by mistake. ok - the twins played the royals quite a bit back during the 14 years that amos otis was in the american league.  however, the announcer corrected himself by saying "i'm sorry - now batting, amos nixon".

next up is a 2004 topps card marking eric gagne's consecutive saves streak a 'season highlight'. i used to get a bick kick out of seeing dodgers on league leader and record breaker/highlight cards (i felt like it was a long time between when i started collecting in 1978 and manny mota's 1980 record breaker card), but now it's not quite as exciting for some reason.

terry whitfield was a giant when i started collecting in '78, but i do have one of his non-dodger cards in my dodger sets.  he was a yankee on the same 1976 topps rookie card that featured henry cruz.  anyway, whitfield was released by the dodgers early in the 1986 season - not too long after i found this card in a pack as i recall.

dave lopes was traded by the dodgers following the 1981 season, so i know he was gone by the time i found his 1982 topps all-star card in a pack.  still, it's one of his two dodger cards in the set, and one of his last dodger cards, period.  i did like steve sax, but i didn't like that he replaced dave lopes.  no cards of coaches over the last few seasons means that we likely lost the last opportunity for a current dodger card of lopes.  he's now the first base coach for his former dodger teammate dusty baker in washington dc.

daryle ward shows up on a card from upper deck's 2003 vintage release.  this was the second series or something, and didn't use the 1965 design that got me collecting the set in the first place.  i was confused when i saw these cards, to be honest.  i thought that maybe topps put a kabosh on the use of their designs, but then in 2008, upper deck had those 1969 style inserts and so i was really interested and then confused by the 2009 1977 previews.  i didn't think much about ward because he didn't do much as a dodger.

i was happy to see manager cards back in topps sets in 2001, especially since the dodgers had a new manager since the last time topps made cards for the skippers.  they had gone through a couple, in fact.  johnson was replaced by jim tracy following a 2nd place finish in the nl west in 2000, but at least we have this card to remember him by.

we saw one of the last dodger cards of an infielder earlier, and now we have the first of another.  steve garvey's 1971 topps rookie card was a jewel of my early collection.  it was pretty tough to find growing up in southern california, especially in my price range.  it is weird still to see him with a fielder's glove as opposed to a first baseman's mitt, and that black batting glove is so chic.

finally we have a 1993 stadium club card of billy ashley.  i honestly thought this was an eric karros card when i started writing this post.  it's a reasonable mistake, however, as ashley has the same sort of running hunch that karros displayed.

cards that didn't make the cut:

it was going to be tough to displace many of these cards no matter what other options existed, but some of the cards that weren't chosen include 1982 o-pee-chee fernando valenzuela at number 334, 2002 upper deck dave hansen at number 335, 1994 upper deck jim gott

at number 336, 1984 donruss joe beckwith at number 337, 1990 upper deck alfredo griffin

at number 338, 1994 pinnacle roger mcdowell at number 339, 1989 topps kirk gibson at number 340, 1970 topps bill sudakis

at number 341, and 2002 upper deck victory cesar izturis at number 342.

my favorite card on the page:

i really do like that topps captured the fist move that gagne demonstrated after each save, but there's no way that my favorite card on the page isn't going to be steve garvey's rookie card.

final thoughts:

i saw gagne pitch in person in 2002 and 2004, but not in 2003 at the height of "game over". in 2004, i was at a game at fenway where he was brought into a game in a non-save situation and struck out the side in order (david ortiz took strike 3 to end the game). not quite the same electricity that was to be experienced at dodger stadium, to be sure.  anyway, kenley jansen just passed gagne on the franchise's all-time saves leader board.  it's no surprise as the closer position has become so specialized, but for a long time, jim brewer was at the top of that list.  he was ultimately passed by todd worrell, who was passed by his replacement jeff shaw, who was passed by his replacement in eric gagne.

frankendodger sheet 34 (cards 298-306) - like a flamingo...

here's sheet number 34 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 298-306:

and the back:

these cards are:

298. 1972 topps claude osteen (in action)
299. 1987 donruss franklin stubbs
300. 2014 topps heritage clayton kershaw
301. 2003 donruss paul loduca
302. 1981 topps dodgers future stars (jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela)
303. 2011 topps update juan uribe
304. 1970 topps bill russell
305. 1958 topps clem labine
306. 2008 upper deck timeline russell martin

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1981 topps dodgers future stars card was one of the collection defining cards for me and my friends in 1981. it had to be in this set.

about the cards:

the local card shop where i grew up was both a card and comic store.  my brother, who read comics, and i would spend a lot of time there. one day we saw the 1972 topps claude osteen in action card and actually wondered if the guy had just one leg.  we found out that he did, in fact, have two legs, but we called this the flamingo card.  that was around the same time that we saw the 1971 topps brooks robinson card that we decided looked like he was searching for droids and the stolen death star plans on tatooine - the beginning of my tatooine collection.

we saw franklin stubbs' 1987 donruss opening day card early on in the set, but thankfully donruss used different photos for that set - something topps does a poor job of with their opening day release. now, the card above does show a confused looking stubbs as opposed to happy stubbs on the od card, but still, different photos.

here we are at the hero number.  i like that topps heritage often matches players/managers up with the same card numbers from the set being honored, and that is certainly the case here.  clayton kershaw gets number 300 in 2014 heritage, and sandy koufax was number 300 in the 1965 set.

i just wish they would match the pose, too.  kershaw's card uses a photo that makes me think the photographer just yelled "hey, clayton - over here!" and then snapped the photo.

not much to say about the 2003 donruss paul loduca card, so let's move on to the jack perconte/mike scioscia/fernando valenzuela rookie.  back in 1981, me and my friends were skeptical of fleer and donruss - topps was usually the priority for pack busting.  still, we bought a fair amount of the others, although most of my donruss cards that year came from buying a brick of dodger cards from a fellow collector.  anyway, fleer didn't even spell fernando's name correctly and donruss didn't bother to include him in their set, so it was topps all the way if you wanted to flaunt a fernando rookie.  throw in sweaty mike scioscia, and it was the card to have as fernandomania took over.  love this card.

i appreciate topps using a photo of juan uribe in the baby blue throwbacks for his 2011 update card. i still think the dodgers should have worn the 1916 checkered uniforms of the robins this season - it is the 100th anniversary of the franchise's first world series appearance, after all.  i also appreciate topps giving outfielder bill russell a card of his own in 1970.  he did play in 98 games for the dodgers in 1969, but with topps putting bill buckner (one game in 1969) over steve garvey (three games in 1969), one is never certain of the criteria for inclusion in a set.

the photo and hat positioning on clem labine's 1958 topps card give the impression that he had a very long cranium.  not 1988 o-pee-chee delino deshields long, but long nonetheless.  finally we have a russell martin card from the 2008 upper deck timeline set - specifically the subset that pays homage to the 2004 legends set.  four years is pretty quick to re-use a design, but i don't mind since i am a fan of the timeless teams set.

cards that didn't make the cut:

aside from the 1965 topps koufax card at the hero number 300, here are some other cards that could have been included but weren't:  1961 topps jim golden

at number 298, 1988 donruss mickey hatcher

at number 299, 1981 donruss jay johnstone at number 300, 1958 topps randy jackson at number 301, 1980 topps dodgers team card at number 302, 1994 leaf ramon martinez at number 303, 1992 bowman jose offerman at number 304, steve garvey's newest card (from 2016 topps archives)

at number 305, and 1984 topps dodgers batting & pitching leaders (pedro guerrero/bob welch) at number 306.

my favorite card on the page:

some tough competition, and bill russell's rookie card falls just short of the perconte/scioscia/valenzuela card - perhaps my favorite multi-player rookie card ever.

final thoughts:

including garvey in this year's archives release, as a short print no less, follows the trend. in 2013, dave lopes got the sp treatment with a 1976 style card.  the following year, it was bill russell's turn with a 1973 card (auto'd only).  last year i was expecting the garv, but eric karros and shawn green got the call for the auto only insert set instead.  here's hoping the penguin shows up in 2017.

in other archives related news, i've entered a couple of contests over at sport card collectors.  one is archives related, and the other is a sports challenge contest - both with some great prizes.  check them out!

frankendodger sheet 10 (cards 82-90) - sweet wheat...

here's sheet number 10 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 82-90:

and the back:

these cards are:

82. 2009 topps finest rafael furcal
83. 1987 donruss opening day franklin stubbs
84. 1998 topps gallery eric young
85. 2000 fleer metal universe gary sheffield
86. 1961 fleer zack wheat
87. 1996 leaf limited ismael valdes
88. 2009 upper deck icons russell martin
89. 2015 topps stadium club joc pederson
90. 2014 topps gypsy queen juan uribe

the "no brainer" of the day:

zack wheat belongs in the set, and his 1961 fleer card is the best option.

about the cards:

we are halfway through my self-imposed lack of player and set duplication, and it's having the intended, if not spectacular, results.  there's not a lot to say about many of these sets, as there were so many useless releases from the 20 years or so from 1987 to the late 2000's. that's true even today, as evidenced by gypsy queen (apologies to any fans of gypsy queen out there). i do appreciate the fact that stubbs' opening day card is different from his 1987 donruss card (which appears in the set later on), and having sheffield and wheat (two of the best hitters the dodgers have ever had) isn't bad.  russell martin has many fantastic baseball cards, but this icons card isn't one of them.  first half of 2015 darling joc pederson makes his first appearance in the set (along with everyone else on the sheet).  the other cards are just shiny-ish. plus juan uribe.

cards that didn't make the cut:

for a number of reasons, these cards fell just short:  1975 sspc paul powell (#82), 2003 upper deck sweet spot classics tom lasorda (#83), 1985 fleer update al oliver (#84), 1991 topps stadium club skydome todd hollandsworth (#85), 1974 topps joe ferguson (#86),

2001 topps american pie rick monday (#87), 1985 topps traded al oliver (#88), 1980-87 sspc baseball immortals jackie robinson (#89), and 1998 topps gold label class 1 gary sheffield (#90).

i miss having not put one of the al oliver cards on the sheet, but he gets his appearance in the set later on within my 20-page effort at diversity.

my favorite card on the page:

i appreciate seeing the bat wag on sheffield's metal card, and if it weren't for the wheat, it would be my favorite.

final thoughts:

on monday, i posted about the 1986 donruss highlights steve sax card that checked in at number 50, and i noted that i thought it was doubtful that topps would issue player of the month cards through their topps now line.  i was wrong.  i wrote that post on may 2nd, and on the 3rd, they posted this card for sale:

now we just have to wait and see if they maintain this for the entire season.