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 53 (cards 469-477) - no piazzas, but two piazzas...

here's sheet number 53 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 469-477:

and the back:

these cards are:

469. 1992 fleer juan samuel
470. 1985 donruss sid bream
471. 1969 topps ted savage
472. 1995 score rafael bournigal
473. 1975 topps ken mcmullen
474. 1995 donruss todd worrell
475. 1987 donruss bob welch
476. 1991 leaf bob ojeda
477. 1982 topps steve yeager

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the closest thing to a no brainer would be the only topps dodger card of ted savage? otherwise, nothing really rises to the occasion here.

about the cards:

juan samuel, seen here on one of his last dodger cards (a 1992 fleer card) gave the dodgers a couple of decent years at second base, but failed to stop the turnstile at the position (he was released during the 1992 season) that began when steve sax left after the 1988 season. since then, the dodgers have had 17 different second basemen start on opening day- one more than the number of different opening day third basemen over the same span.

sid bream did not get a rated rookie card in the 1985 donruss set (tony brewer was the dodgers' rated rookie that year), as evidenced by the lack of the famous logo on his card above, but his cards were in high demand among young southern california collectors nonetheless.  i think that had a lot to do with how disappointed we were with greg brock. bream was traded to the pirates later in the '85 season for bill madlock.

now we are to the ted savage card from 1969 topps.  the card lists savage as a dodger (he had joined the club in april of '68 - thank goodness for cards issued in series rather than all at once), but uses a photo from his time with the pirates, which ended in 1964. in fact, this photo looks like it came from the same session as his 1967 card photo. that card lists him as a cub, but he is clearly wearing a pirates jersey.  i'm not complaining, mind you, as i appreciate topps at least getting the team name right on a midseason acquisition.

rafael bournigal didn't play a single game in the majors during the 1995 season, but he did get a few cards, including this one from score showing him and mike piazza sharing a post game high-five.  bournigal started the '95 season at albuquerque, but was traded to the expos in june and spent the rest of the season in their minor league system.  it was really weird to find out that, despite that trade, topps used him in their pre-production 1996 set.

i like to think that if things had aligned better, bournigal's nickname would have been 'jason' (no, i am not getting paid for that movie plug).

the 1975 topps ken mcmullen card is one of my least favorite dodger cards from the set due to the unsightly (in my opinion) color combination topps used. i could never be a cleveland browns fan, i guess.

next up is another card from 1995 featuring the dodger catcher and some postgame congrats. this time, it's closer todd worrell and his donruss card that makes way for the strongest man in socal to join him.  i don't know if this was a ploy by card companies, but i have seen quite a number of double play cards where the player sliding in (who is not the card subject) is a player of note.  as a now limited player collector, i don't mind.  if i still had a separate mike piazza player collection, things like this could get out of hand pretty quickly, as i include lurker and/or cameos in my pc's.

i do have a second copy of the 1987 donruss bob welch card in my dodger stadium binder, but i don't keep a second copy of the 1991 leaf bob ojeda card with my lurker mini-collection. that's because the lurker is a fellow dodger, and also because it's probably just alfredo griffin.  no offense, alfredo.

the final card of the page is a 1982 topps steve yeager card. i was hoping for some world series action on yeager's card (or any of the dodgers, frankly), but was disappointed.  it's just another shea stadium batter's box photo.

cards that didn't make the cut:

those cards not selected include 1993 topps dave hansen at number 469, 1988 score orel hershiser at number 470, 2007 topps heritage andre ethier at number 471, 1968 topps walter alston

at number 472, 2011 topps chad billingsley

at number 473, 1996 donruss karim garcia at number 474, 1988 donruss dave anderson at number 475, 1994 score mike piazza at number 476, and 1984 topps rafael landestoy

at number 477.

my favorite card on the page:

i like the bournigal card a wee bit more than the worrell card due to the high-five as opposed to the arm-wrestle handshake.

final thoughts:

looking at these cards, i am reminded that topps did not always put their logo on the front of their cards. take a look at the 1969 and 1975 cards, neither of which have the logo. the '69 has the logo on the back, but the '75 doesn't even have that.  contrast that with fleer, score, and leaf - and then there is donruss, who not only put their logo on the front, but also the year of the card (at least prior to 1995).  that was some revolutionary stuff back in 1981

when they began the trend.