frankendodger sheet 42 (cards 370-378) - batmen and robin...

here's sheet number 42 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 370-378:

and the back:

these cards are:

370. 1976 topps ron cey
371. 2002 topps chad kreuter
372. 1981 topps jay johnstone
373. 1979 topps lance rautzhan
374. 2013 topps heritage luis cruz
375. 1958 topps pee wee reese
376. 1975 o-pee-chee steve yeager
377. 2004 topps robin ventura
378. 1985 fleer tom niedenfuer

the "no brainer" of the day:

lance rauthzhan had just one solo card as a dodger, and as a member of the team of my youth, his 1979 topps card was guaranteed a spot in the set.

about the cards:

ron cey lets his hat hair shine on his 1976 topps card.  cey was the starting third baseman for the national league in the all-star game for the second year in a row, but the voters would give pete rose the nod in '76.  the dodger voting contingent showed up in 1977, however, and got cey his all-star recognition back in time for the 1978 topps set.

chad kreuter's 2002 topps card reminds me of the time when he went into the stands at wrigley field after a fan stole his hat off of his head.  that happened in 2000, kreuter's first year with the dodgers.

on the other hand, jay johnstone's 1981 topps card reminds me of the time that he hit a pinch-hit home run in game 4 of the 1981 world series to cut the yankees' lead in the game to one and get the dodgers on the path to victory.  johnstone was cut by the team the following may, but he's still a dodger world series hero.

speaking of the postseason, lance rautzhan was the winning pitcher in the 'black friday' game in the 1977 nlcs against the phillies.  i was looking forward to a solo rautzhan card in 1978 following his postseason appearances, but he received a four-in-one rookie card instead.  i was happy to find this card in the 1979 topps release, but by then i had turned my attention to finding a bob welch card instead.  rautzhan passed away earlier this year and i was flattered that jon weisman used the 1978 topps card that i created for his news release on dodgers insider.

luis cruz was part of the crew that tried to hold down third base for the dodgers in 2012.  cruz, coming back to the big leagues after some time in the mexican league, manned the hot corner for the dodgers that year along with adam kennedy and juan uribe, but he also spent time at shortstop.  he hit just under .300 with 20 doubles in a total of 78 games that season, but his 2013 was not as productive and he was released by the club in july. i prefer cruz's 2013 topps flagship card

to this heritage card, but only one of them is number 374.

so nice to have a dupe of a vintage pee wee reese card.  and, this 1958 topps card being his final card makes it even better. it's too bad it's not a true final tribute, but topps wasn't into that back then.  i think we can all rest assured that there will be plenty of david ortiz cards in 2017 product.  for now, let's just add a 1959 pee wee reese card to the long list of cards that should have been and hopefully will eventually be made by topps someday.

i had a double of steve yeager's 1975 topps card, but then discovered that i also had a dupe of his 1975 o-pee-chee card, so guess which one made the set? the canadian card even has a stain on the back, no doubt from some backbacon grease or perhaps condensation from an ice cold labbatt's.  i should point out that yeager is also proof that not all folks with 'wayne' as a middle name are bad people.

and now we've arrived at robin ventura's fantastic 2004 topps card. it is one of my favorites from the set, thanks to jeromy burnitz pointing at home plate in the background and the fact that it documents ventura's inside the park home run hit against the braves on august 3, 2003.  i started following ventura's career when he was at oklahoma state thanks to some common ties although i had been aware of him for a couple years before he left for college.  when he joined the dodgers in 2003, i was pleased, but had the distinct feeling that it was too little, too late.  you see, while the dodgers were trying to fill the hole at third base that they created by trading ron cey away earlier in the decade, they passed on ventura in the 1988 draft.  instead, they took bill bene with the 5th pick and let ventura fall to the white sox at 10.  for the record, the dodgers also passed on ed sprague who proved to be a serviceable third baseman for a few seasons and so were left to feature jeff hamilton, mike sharperson, lenny harris, dave hansen, tim wallach, mike blowers, and todd zeile (among others) at third before adrian beltre kind of settled things down.  when ventura made it to la, he wound up playing mostly first base, although he did get to pitch in a game with the dodgers (and i was really hoping for a 'pressed into service' card from topps in series 2 of this year's flagship release). maybe in update? please?

the last card here is tom niedenfuer's 1985 topps card, on which the dodger reliever does a fine job of suttoning.  1985 was not a good year for niedenfuer, at least as far as dodger fans remember, thanks to a couple of pitches in the nlcs, but he set career highs in saves, innings pitched, and strikeouts that season.  i'm not going to harp on niedenfuer for what happened against the cardinals in '85, because i can't really complain about the team winning two world series titles in the 1980's.  i will mention, however, that niedenfuer was only part of the 1981 team - in fact, he was the guy for whom jay johnstone pinch-hit in game 4 against the yankees.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1985 fleer pedro guerrero at number 370, 1998 topps roger cedeno at number 371, 1998 pacific online thomas howard

at number 372, 1999 fleer tradition carlos perez at number 373, 1993 o-pee-chee todd worrell

at number 374, 1978 topps tommy john

at number 375, 1991 bowman eddie murray at number 376, 1990 upper deck john wetteland at number 377, and 1989 score jay howell at number 378.

my favorite card on the page:

robin ventura's 2004 topps card wins today with its iphr action and lurking burnitz.

final thoughts:

so here's a case where a classic vintage card (reese) trumps a significant dodger card (john) from my favorite set ever.  on a side note, john probably makes the brady bunch page (although his shoulders are turned) in bobby's spot. or maybe mike brady's spot. it depends on whether john is checking out alice or jan.

frankendodger sheet 21 (cards 181-189) - a hero for all-time...

here's sheet number 21 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 181-189:

and the back:

these cards are:

181. 2014 bowman chrome dan haren
182. 1991 donruss studio gary carter
183. 2012 bowman james loney
184. 2001 bowman's best joe thurston
185. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes steve garvey
186. 1986 leaf tom niedenfuer
187. 2002 fleer platinum jeff shaw
188. 1971 topps bob valentine/mike strahler
189. 2004 upper deck dave roberts

the "no brainer" of the day:

of all of these cards, the 1971 topps valentine/strahler card was the one that slotted in on this page first.  maybe not a true no brainer, but everything else here fit in around it. still, it was enough of a no brainer to block a different jeff shaw card from the set - more on that below.

about the cards:

three bowman cards and a studio card start the sheet off.  i wonder what drives the decision for card manufacturers to use either the interlocking 'la' logo versus the flying ball logo.  anyway, i don't care for the logo placement on haren's card, and if you were to remove the logo from carter's studio card, you would see that it is a card that panini could (and does) make today.

loney and thurston strike similar poses, while upper deck gave me a new steve garvey card in 1994 using a photo from the 1974 world series.  i was pretty happy when i found out about this set, which happened later in the decade. i am glad that the inset photo they used was also a dodger photo instead of a padre photo - upper deck pulled that kind of swap on a few cards, such as manny mota's and charlie neal's.

being a leaf card rather than a donruss card doesn't make tom niedenfuer's card any more interesting.  i will once again take a moment to tell the tale of perhaps my favorite letter to the editor ever.  it must have been in 1985 when some fine person wrote a poem to the la times' sports editor that went something like this:  "i am a true blue dodger fan, so i won't be naming names. but there is a certain pitcher, we niedenfuer games." genius.

jeff shaw's 2002 fleer platinum card is obviously from a 'heritage' type set that honors the 1987 fleer design.  not sure why fleer put the orange bar on the bottom (dodger cards in 1987 had a darker blue bar).  the orange makes it look like a padre card.  next up is the first multi-player rookie card in the set. both strahler and valentine would be sent to the angels with frank robinson a couple years after this card came out.

last, but not least, is a card of the current dodger manager, dave roberts. i am not a fan of the blue jerseys as game jerseys (even though i own one), but i do like roberts' card.  also, from 2002-2005, i was only buying topps stuff, so upper deck cards from that timeframe are relatively new and interesting to me.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards considered but not chosen for this sheet include 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee cory wade at number 181, 1971 o-pee-chee al downing

at number 182, 1998 bowman ted lilly at number 183, 2003 (or 2004) upper deck shawn green

at number 184, 1996 upper deck collector's choice mike piazza at number 185, 1996 sp hideo nomo at number 186, 2003 (or 2004) upper deck andy ashby at number 187, 1999 fleer ultra jeff shaw

at number 188 (that is a great card, but the valentine/strahler card held its own), 2003 upper deck dave roberts at number 189 (yes, roberts, green, and ashby all held the same numbers in two consecutive upper deck flagship sets).

my favorite card on the page:

just to be a bit unpredictable, i won't choose the garvey card (it's nice, but fairly dark). the thurston is a cool looking card, but my favorite here is the dave roberts card.  i chose his 2004 card over his 2003 card for this spot because of its blue-ness despite my aversion to the blue jerseys as mentioned above.

final thoughts:

chances were pretty good that i was going to have to repeat a set or player at 185, so i figured it might as well be my baseball hero, steve garvey, who had the honors.  i could have gone with a 2015 bowman chrome mini erisbel arruebarrena card there, but i didn't have a double, and limiting the card selection for the first 20 pages seemed like a nice number to stop on.