frankendodger sheet 58 (cards 514-522) - 22% canadian...

here's sheet number 58 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 514-522:

and the back:

these cards are:

514. 1967 topps john werhas
515. 1973 o-pee-chee andy messersmith
516. 1994 topps kevin gross
517. 2002 upper deck kazuhisa ishii
518. 1988 fleer orel hershiser
519. 1971 o-pee-chee willie crawford
520. 1994 upper deck chan ho park
521. 1980 topps ken brett
522. 1972 topps dodgers team

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be george brett's older brother's card - the only dodger card of ken brett issued during his playing days.

about the cards:

this duplicate of john werhas's 1967 topps card has a big ol' crease running across it. that's ok - it is a frankenset, after all.  the card is from the 6th series, but for some reason does not list werhas as a member of the california angels - the team to which he was traded to in may of '67.

the first of two o-pee-chee cards on the page is andy messersmith's 1973 card. if you look closely at the back,

you will see that while bill remains bill, and mike remains mike, andy translates to "andy" in french.

kevin gross is up next with his 1994 topps card. i think 1994 topps is one of their better releases of that decade. i didn't think much of it at the time, but that had a lot to do with the excessive glossiness of the cards.  i think with a couple of tweaks (the card stock and the font of the players' names), the design could be pretty solid, and i do like the backs.

kaz ishii was supposed to be a lefty hideo nomo, but wound up being more like a lefty hideki irabu.  that's probably not entirely fair, but he did walk a bunch of people.  i like this 2002 upper deck card because it showcases dodger stadium, complete with the retired number outfield wall murals (that's tommy lasorda to ishii's left), in the background.

the red, white, and blue design of 2002 upper deck is not as gaudy as that of 1988 fleer.  putting cards of orel hershiser from 1988 into the set just feels right, regardless of the card design.

now here's the second canadian card of the page - a 1971 o-pee-chee willie crawford card.  it's a little rough, but it's a dupe, and i am a fan of the yellow backs and the starburst head shot that makes these cards different from their topps counterparts.  and, in case you are wondering, willie is just willie in french - no quotations marks.

this chan ho park card is from the 'diamond debuts' subset in 1994 upper deck.  i assumed that the silhouette on the front was just a generic pitcher, but comparing the photo of park on the back to it, i now believe it is actually park. that's a level of effort that upper deck stopped aspiring to in their last few years producing baseball cards.

and now we have ken brett's 1980 topps card.  he was a good hitter, and he actually hit for himself in a game for the white sox during the 1976 season, rather than give way to a designated hitter.  the chisox also used him as a pinch-hitter a number of times.  i always thought that tommy lasorda should have used terry forster as a pinch-hitter more often, but i guess he had a couple of pinch-hitting specialists (manny mota and vic davalillo) on the roster already.  at any rate, the dodgers did not use brett as a pinch-hitter at all, although he was 3 for 11 at the plate during his time with them in 1979.

one of the things that i like about the 1972 topps dodger team card is that the photo looks like it was taken from the top of the 3rd base dugout at dodger stadium. you can see the low right field railing giving way to the bullpen in the background, and the dirt in front of the dugout in the foreground. it also looks like the visiting team is on the field and taking batting practice. it all makes for a more interesting card than the other team cards that followed with the more organized or staged photos taken in the outfield.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1983 donruss mark belanger at number 514, 1976 topps steve yeager at number 515, 1991 topps stadium club ramon martinez at number 516, 1992 bowman orel hershiser at number 517, 2003 upper deck 40 man hideo nomo at number 518. 1984 donruss dave sax

at number 519, 1994 fleer mike piazza at number 520, 1961 topps brother battery (norm and larry sherry)

at number 521, and 1961 dick farrell

at number 522.

my favorite card on the page:

the card i keep going back to here is the kaz ishii card. i just really like seeing the dodger stadium outfield pavilions and murals on cardboard, i guess.

final thoughts:

did you notice how much better topps had become at airbrushing the interlocking la logo onto hats between 1973

and 1980?

that is great progress!

frankendodger sheet 48 (cards 424-432) - what's your name man?...

here's sheet number 48 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 424-432:

and the back:

these cards are:

424. 1996 donruss mike piazza
425. 1983 topps pedro guerrero
426. 1990 topps jeff hamilton
427. 1970 topps fred norman
428. 2003 upper deck fred mcgriff
429. 1961 nu-cards baseball scoops roy campanella
430. 1996 fleer john cummings
431. 2007 topps luis gonzalez
432. 1995 bowman chan ho park

the "no brainer" of the day:

there are no iconic cards on this page, but there are a couple of 'one and done' type cards. i'll go with fred norman's lone dodger card as the one the was a lock for the set.

about the cards:

1996 donruss leads off with their 'black box' design. not one of my favorites. still, this is a mike piazza dodger card, and that's a good thing.  piazza goes into the hall of fame later this month, and i guess i expected to see more piazza cards this year as a result.  there have been some - and even some showing him as a dodger - but i figured there would be more.

i was happy to find this 1983 topps pedro guerrero card in a pack back then because topps had given us two and a third cards of petey using photos of him sitting or standing around.  with everything he was doing on the field, i was looking for an action shot.  plus, there are no worse cards than the 1983 topps cards where both pictures - the main one and the inset - are posed.

to topps' credit, they did a pretty good job avoiding too many cards like the vicente romo above - at least among the dodgers.

i think night owl is the one who referred to the 1990 topps set as the 'lichtenstein' set.  this helped me appreciate the set so much more.  i'm being serious.  jeff hamilton, on the other hand, is still not one of my favorite dodgers, but he did catch the last out of game 4 of the 1988 world series, so i have some appreciation for him.

the first several times i saw fred norman's 1970 topps card, i figured that the interlocking 'la' logo on his had was akin to an iron on patch due to the vertical line running to its left.  it was quite a while before i noticed that the topps artists had left norman in some other team's (i'm guessing it is a spokane indians jersey - norman played for them in 1967 and 1969) jersey (notice the red patchwork just above the 'pitcher' text) and that his had was colored blue with the 'la' logo being cut and pasted from someone else's photo. it's the only card of norman as a dodger other than his 1990 target card

as he was plucked off of waivers by the cardinals during the 1970 season.

kudos to upper deck for making this 2003 fred mcgriff card.  the horizontal layout works nicely with his crouch and the strata of seats in holman stadium. it is my favorite card of mcgriff as a dodger.

it's getting late in the set to be showing an oddball for the first time, but luckily the 1961 nu-cards baseball scoops set was huge.  this is one of a few dodger cards in the set, and it celebrates roy campanella's 1953 season in which he set new records for home runs, rbi, and putouts for catchers and was rewarded with the mvp award for his efforts.

john cummings joined the dodgers during the 1995 season and pitched often enough to show up in the 1996 fleer set.  he had debuted with the mariners in 1993 after making the jump straight from triple-a, and for five innings, he was fantastic.  he had allowed just one hit (a double by cal ripken jr) through and had a 2-0 lead over the orioles in his first big league appearance before allowing five straight hits to start the sixth inning before being pulled. he was used solely as a reliever with the dodgers, and was with the club for about a year before being traded to the tigers.

luis gonzalez joined the dodgers for the 2007 season and was given this card in the topps flagship set. i am happy to report that gonzalez's 2008 topps card showed him as a marlin.  i appreciated gonzalez for getting the series winning hit against the yankees in the 2001 fall classic, but he is on the short list of my least favorite dodgers. it has more to do with him being brought in and blocking matt kemp from getting more playing time early in the season, and then complaining when kemp did play more often later in the year.  with gonzalez gone, i was expecting a full season of an ethier/pierre/kemp outfield, but ned colletti then went out and brought in andruw jones in 2008.

1995 bowman was released on the heels of 1994 upper deck (one of my favorite upper deck sets), and one couldn't help but notice the similarities between the two designs due to the 'phantom zone' inset photo.

as a result, i've had a bit of an aversion to 1995 bowman except for dodger cards like this chan ho park.

cards that didn't make the cut:

honorable mentions go to the cards that fell short, including 1991 topps stadium club gary carter at number 424, 1984 topps steve howe at number 425, 1994 topps finest chan ho park at number 426, 2007 topps randy wolf

at number 427, 1988 topps john shelby at number 428, 2003 upper deck joe thurston

at number 429, 1971 topps wes parker at number 430, 1987 topps dodgers leaders (although not the one i have signed by ron perranoski)

at number 431, and 1989 donruss rick dempsey at number 432.

my favorite card on the page:

it was nice to finally have an action photo on a topps pedro guerrero card, and the mcgriff card is nice, but oddball roy campanella is my favorite card on this page.

final thoughts:

have you seen hamilton? not jeff hamilton - hamilton the musical (the title of this post refers to the opening number where the characters are introduced).  i was lucky enough to see it last year while in new york for a conference. it was fantastic. in a few days, the show's creator lin-manuel miranda (who plays alexander hamilton - the ten-dollar founding father) will leave the production, and i am very interested to see what he does next.  as for me, i've got about 33 more of these posts to go, and i'm not sure what comes after that.

frankendodger sheet 41 (cards 361-369) - with bill and ted and a not so excellent cartoon...

here's sheet number 41 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 361-369:

and the back:

these cards are:

361. 2000 fleer tradition todd hollandsworth
362. 1994 leaf todd worrell
363. 1992 topps john candelaria
364. 1966 topps nate oliver
365. 1967 topps john roseboro
366. 1977 topps ted sizemore
367. 1997 upper deck collector's choice chan ho park
368. 1973 topps bill buckner
369. 1970 topps alan foster

the "no brainer" of the day:

there is not really an obvious choice here, but the closest thing to a no brainer on this page would be the 1977 topps sizemore card, i think.  it's the only card we have of the 1969 rookie of the year from his second time around with the dodgers.

about the cards:

fleer kind of ripped off the 1954 topps design with their 2000 tradition release, and then they used the 1956 topps design the following year before realizing that they had some designs of their own they could use.  i'm not a big fan of this particular hollandsworth card - i think the green is too bright - but i had a double of it and it fit in the set.

the 1994 leaf card is todd worrell's first entry in the set. two todds in a row, and two rookies of the year in a row, too.  worrell was, to me, the first modern closer that the dodgers employed, and he was the one who broke jim brewer's team saves record (since surpassed by jeff shaw, eric gagne, and now kenley jansen).  just like the front of hollandsworth's card gives us mini holly and giant holly, the back of worrell's card gives us a giant worrell in dodger stadium.  i appreciate the use of chavez ravine as the background for the back of the card, but i don't need it to be obscured by a third picture of worrell.

the back of john candelaria's 1992 topps card should also have a picture of dodger stadium on it, but for the fact that the candy man has too many rows of stats.  this is partially due to the fact that topps gives a separate row to each team for which candelaria pitched each year, so there are a few seasons with a couple of rows.  i prefer this approach to stats on the back as opposed to combining stats for different teams, probably because this is the way topps did it (and still does).

with their 1966 topps and 1967 topps cards, respectively, nate oliver and john roseboro give us a look at the evoluton of topps design from one year to the next.  there aren't too many instances in this set where we go chronologically in order from one year to the next. for the record, i prefer the 1967 design to the 1966 design.

i mentioned above that the 1977 topps ted sizemore card is the only one produced showing him as a dodger following the trade between the dodgers and cardinals in march of 1976 that sent willie crawford to st. louis.  that trade occurred too late, i guess, for sizemore's sspc card to be changed or for a topps traded card to be made.  by the time this card was issued, however, sizemore was playing for the phillies.  he was on the field for the phils in game 3 of the 1977 nlcs (aka 'black friday'), and it was his 9th inning fielding error on greg luzinski's throw (the ball skipped away from sizemore) that allowed manny mota to go to third where he scored on davey lopes' infield single.  it's too bad, but i'm glad the dodgers won.

chan ho park shows off some spring training bullpen stuff on his 1996 upper deck collector's choice card.  it's the kind of photo that a fan might take while walking around dodgertown in the mid 1990's, and i like that.  i also like the dodger stadium background in the photo on the back.  no giant chan ho, either.

bill buckner is also at spring training on his 1973 topps card, but he's not posing for a fan.  billy buck is wearing a first baseman's glove as he was wes parker's heir apparent, but we all know now that he eventually moved to the outfield to make way for steve garvey.  the only bad thing about this card is the cartoon on the back:

buckner was born in the north bay - vallejo, to be exact - and attended high school in napa, so his fandom for the giants makes sense. still, i imagine the original owner of this card being disturbed by this fact and taking a red marker to the cartoon to express their disgust.

the last card on the page is alan foster's 1970 topps card.  the cartoon on the back of foster's card notes that he received a $100,000 bonus to sign with the dodgers in 1965. that's a better cartoon.

cards that didn't make the cut:

for whatever reason, some of the cards that i passed on for this page include 2001 upper deck vintage dodgers rookies (mike judd, hiram bocachica, and luke prokopec) at number 361, 1982 donruss terry forster at number 362, 1961 topps john roseboro at number 363, 1959 topps danny mcdevitt

at number 364, 1999 topps raul mondesi

at number 365, 1985 fleer dave anderson at number 366, 2014 topps brian wilson

at number 367, 1974 topps manny mota at number 368, and 1994 pinnacle brett butler at number 369.

my favorite card on the page:

chan ho park's 1996 collector's choice card is my favorite here.  something about the background and the design of the card.

final thoughts:

we are halfway through the set already.  this seems like a good spot to thank people for following along so far, and for reading, commenting, and continuing to trade cards with me.  it is much appreciated!

frankendodger sheet 12 (cards 100-108) - the hero number gets updated to avoid an exemption from the earlier rule...

i've updated this page since the original post ran.

here's sheet number 12 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 100-108:

and the back:

here's what the page originally looked like:

these cards are:

100. 2013 topps opening day matt kemp 1990 bowman hubie brooks
101. 2013 topps heritage don mattingly
102. 2008 upper deck derek lowe
103. 2003 upper deck mvp kazuhisa ishii
104. 1995 leaf ramón martinez
105. 1963 topps ron fairly
106. 1962 post willie davis
107. 1996 upper deck sp chan ho park
108. 1980 o-pee-chee dave goltz

the "no brainer" of the day:

i love me some o-pee-chee variations, and i really wanted that dave goltz card in the set.

about the cards:

so, it's matt kemp who makes the first repeat appearance in the frankenset at the hero number of 100.

as i mentioned in the "final thoughts" of this original post, i was a bit miffed that i had not used the hubie brooks bowman card at number 100 in order to maintain the diversity of the set.  so, i made the switch from kemp to brooks.  brooks is not really a hero number kind of guy, but i'll have other opportunities to line up big numbers with big players.

i wanted to have at least one card of every manager from alston on up, so the mattingly card fits in nicely here (over alston, actually).

lowe and ishii are convenient fillers, but i can't believe it's taken 12 pages to get to ramon martinez.  i learned about ron fairly early in my baseball following days due to the fact that he used to wear garvey's number, and he was an announcer for the angels on ktla (pretty sure) after he retired.  i like his colorful 1963 topps card, and it looks great in the set as its first representative.

for the second day in a row, there's a davis on the page.  willie shows up on his 1962 post card - the first blank back in the set i believe (it's tough to keep track).  willie doesn't seem to get a lot of hype, even though he is among the career leaders in so many los angeles dodger categories.  i suspect it has to do with the struggles he had following his retirement and his lack of continuous involvement with the team like some other former players.

chan ho park and dave goltz finish off the page.  chan ho never won more than 18 games in a season, while dave was a 21-game winner in 1977.  i know that wins are not the best measure of a pitcher, especially to compare across generations, but i would think that both pitchers disappointed dodger fans to some degree - park never really lived up to his potential, and goltz never got back to his best days.  still, i was pretty excited when goltz signed with the dodgers and caused that fantastic o-pee-chee card to be created.

cards that didn't make the cut:

part of the reason for kemp originally showing up again was the fact that most of the other options at #100 included koufax or snider or nomo or piazza - guys that have already been included in the set.  however, i could have used (and have still can, i suppose) a 1990 bowman hubie brooks card to maintain the diversity of the set.  if anyone cares to send me one, i might consider it.

other cards passed over include walter alston's 1964 topps card at #101,

chin-feng chen's 2001 topps heritage card, also at #101, 1995 topps stadium club paul konerko at #102, 1968 topps don sutton at #103, 1978 topps lee lacy at #104 (in fact, i could have used either a 1978 topps card (lacy), a 1979 topps card (johnny oates), a 1980 topps card (manny mota), or a 1981 topps card (terry forster) at #104 - supporting my theory about checklist perpetuation?), a 1960 topps larry sherry at #105, a 2000 topps stadium club devon white at #106,

a 1988 pacific zoilo versalles at #107, and a 2004 playoff absolute memorabilia rickey henderson at #108.

my favorite card on the page:

it's the goltz card.

final thoughts:

i am a little bit bothered by that hubie brooks omission.  i think i meant to use a different card from 1990 bowman elsewhere in the set (the dodgers are numbered sequentially in that set), but wound up not doing so, and then forgot that it was then available at #100.  this post may get updated at some point...

and so it has.