frankendodger sheet 78 (cards 694-702) - manny being a hero...

here's sheet number 78 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 694-702:

and the back:

these cards are:

694. 1978 topps elias sosa
695. 1980 topps reggie smith
696. 1986 topps bill russell
697. 1990 topps mike davis
698. 1988 topps brad havens
699. 2001 topps chad kreuter
700. 2009 upper deck manny ramirez
701. 1990 upper deck jim gott
702. 1992 fleer brett butler

the "no brainer" of the day:

reggie smith's 1980 topps card is one of the first cards i think of when i think of cards from that set.  i first saw this card when i pulled it from a pack in downtown los angeles after a trip to a convenience store following a day of accompanying my dad to some work related meetings.

about the cards:

elias sosa brings us the last card from the 1978 topps set to make the frankenset.  sosa was no longer a dodger in 1978, but his card from that year is a good one.

one more note about the 1980 topps reggie smith card - the facsimile autograph is pretty high up on the image, thanks to the dark background of the dugout behind him. this is another reason that i am not a fan of the autos on base cards.

i thought that topps' decision in 1986 to put the "dean" of the team on the front of the team leader cards was a good one.  of course, i was a dodger fan, and that meant that bill russell was on the front instead of pedro guerrero and orel hershiser, who would have been there had topps followed the model of their 1982, 1983, and 1984 sets.  seeing petey and orel would have been ok, too, don't get me wrong, but bill russell had never had a second card in a set before.  i would like to note that two other members of the team of my youth were featured on these cards - charlie hough

and rick rhoden

which is kind of crazy if you think about what kind of turnover there had to have been in texas and pittsburgh for these two guys to be considered the longest tenured players on the team.

i had mentioned in a post a few years ago that i had a number of duplicates of mike davis' 1990 topps card, so one of them made the frankenset.  i still don't care too much for 1990 topps, although i don't think it is my least favorite topps set ever as i had mentioned in that post, and the davis card with the blue border actually looks pretty good.  if only all the dodger cards had that border...

...dodgers shouldn't have orange borders.

brad havens and his 1988 topps card mark the first appearance in the set for the dodger reliever who had the misfortune of being released by the team during the 1988 season.  there's not a lot to say about his dodger tenure, so i will use havens' last name to ask if anyone else is sick of all of the pun related headlines at mlb.com.  it is ridiculous.  look at this recent one.

babe truth.  like i said, ridiculous. were havens pitching today (and doing something headline worthy) we would be bombarded with things like "havens a blast - dodger pitcher closese the door against the braves" or "safe havens - dodger pitcher beats out bunt attempt to prolong inning".  puns should be left for blog post titles.

next up is chad kreuter's 2001 topps card which features a photo of him on the back without a hat which makes sense after what happened that day in wrigley.

now we come to the final 'hero number' in the frankenset, 700, and manny ramirez with his 2009 upper deck card gets the call.  manny's numbers for the dodgers in 2008 certainly qualify for the hero treatment: .396/.489/.743 with 17 homers and 53 rbi in 53 games for the blue after the trade with the red sox (and pirates). he was even better in the postseason, going .500/.643/1.100 with 2 homers in the nlds against the cubs and .533/.682/1.067 with 2 more homers against the phillies in the nlcs.  i really thought after loney's grand slam in the nlds that the dodgers were going to win it all in 2008.  in fact, it was the excitement following the arrival of manny ramirez that made me want to start a blog, and the explosion of the card-centric blogs at the time sealed the deal for me.  so, blame manny for all of this if you so desire.

jim gott is back with his 1991 upper deck card this time.  gott seemed like a good guy from the photos used on his cards.  he was either pitching or smiling.

for the most part, anyway.

or doing hapkido.  so, just sometimes smiling. still seemed like a good dude.

the last card on the sheet is one of those fleer superstar special subset cards from the back end of their sets. this one is from 1992 and features the dodgers' brett butler and paul molitor of the brewers - aka 'the ignitors'.  molly was once my favorite non-dodger and i am ok with him being an honorary member of the frankenset.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1979 topps burt hooton

at number 694, 2015 topps heritage (high number) alex guerrero at number 695, 1991 donruss darryl strawberry at number 696, 1994 topps dave hansen

at number 697, 2002 upper deck 40 man terry mulholland at number 698, 1987 topps ken landreaux at number 699, 2002 upper deck 40 man steve colyer at number 700, 2009 upper deck danny ardoin

at number 701, and 2009 upper deck orlando hudson at number 702.

my favorite card on the page:

it's tough to choose between a 1978 topps dodger card, a reggie smith dodger card, and a bill russell card, but i'm a fan of the infield at heart, and a card recognizing russell for being a dodger for a long time wins out over the others.

final thoughts:

this set is into the home stretch now that we've hit the 700s.  only three more sheets to go until the end, and there are fewer and fewer sets to choose cards from.  we'll be seeing 2009 upper deck and the 1990 target set again, for sure.

frankendodger sheet 54 (cards 478-486) - check(list) out these cards...

here's sheet number 54 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 478-486:

and the back:

these cards are:

478. 1996 upper deck tom lasorda
479. 1998 donruss collections elite wilton guerrero
480. 1961 topps roy campanella
481. 1993 topps ryan luzinski
482. 2012 topps chris capuano
483. 1989 topps mickey hatcher
484. 2009 upper deck manny ramirez
485. 2005 upper deck eric gagne
486. 1989 donruss tim crews

the "no brainer" of the day:

well, i suppose when you rescue a 1961 topps roy campanella card from the vintage bargain bin even though you have one for your team set, it is going to go into the frankenset.

about the cards:

i was pretty happy to see tom lasorda get a card from upper deck in 1996.  it was the first card that they made of the dodger manager, although he had appeared on a few cards such as the 1992 bob ojeda,

1993 sp eric karros,

and 1994 tim wallach.

this card is actually a checklist, and lasorda is featured because he was entering his 20th season as the dodger manager.  what upper deck didn't know was that it would also be his last.

the wilton guerrero card is another one of those from donruss in 1998 where they took their regular cards from their flagship, elite, preferred, and other releases and made them into a new set called 'collections'.  they didn't change the number on the back of the card (guerrero's regular elite card is number 79 in the set), but they did add a new card number further down the back.

it was pretty cool of topps to make cards for mvp winners as part of their 1961 set.  campy only got one card even though he won three mvp awards. it's also too bad that topps only went back to 1950, denying us a jackie robinson card (and ted williams, too) as the 1949 mvp.  topps did the mvp's again (from 1952 through 1974) in 1975, and then again (from 1962 through 1981) in their 1982 k-mart set, but we haven't seen anything like this since.

ryan luzinski, son of greg, was the dodgers' first round pick in 1992, and topps gave us this card in 1993 as a result. a catcher by trade, he progressed to triple-a with the dodgers and later the reds, but never received the call to the big leagues.  the dodger farm system actually did well with catchers in the '90's - piazza, carlos hernandez, henry blanco, ken huckaby, and angel pena were all home grown talents, with pena being signed the same year the dodgers drafted luzinski.

there's not much going on with the 2012 topps chris capuano card, so let's move on to the 1989 topps mickey hatcher card. actually, there's not much going on there either, so let's move on to the 2009 upper deck manny ramirez card.  it, too is a checklist - a team checklist at that, as is the card after it - a 2005 upper deck card featuring eric gagne.  i like team checklists.  of course, because i began collecting in 1978, i prefer my team checklists to have a team photo on the front, with perhaps a nod to the manager.  still, having another card of manny ramirez in a dodger uniform in 2009 was not a bad thing, nor was seeing eric gagne get some recognition in 2005, as he was the longest tenured dodger at that time.

last card is the 1989 donruss tim crews card.  i think this is my favorite card from the vastly overproduced '89 donruss set.  it features crews pitching in dodger stadium, but the angle is slightly different from most photos of pitchers used on cards.  we still see a bit of the visitor's bullpen behind crews, but we also get a healthy dose of the right field pavilion providing a nice pop of color. this is the card i referred to in a previous post when writing about the 1993 score jim gott card that features a similar angle, but with a lesser result.  i think this is just a fantastic looking card.

cards that didn't make the cut:

among the "almost made its" are 1989 score dave anderson

at number 478, 1998 topps chrome mike piazza (with ken griffey jr) at number 479, 2002 topps shawn green at number 480, 1988 topps mariano duncan at number 481, 1992 upper deck john candelaria at number 482, 1961 topps don newcombe (sans ttm autograph)

at number 483, 1977 topps burt hooton at number 484, 2004 fleer tradition dodgers trio prospects (koyie hill, alfredo gonzalez, andrew brown) at number 485, and 2012 topps jerry sands

at number 486.

my favorite card on the page:

the campy is great, and seeing lasorda in upper deck sets was nice, but i actually like the tim crews card best. 1989 donruss - imagine that.

final thoughts:

is there anyone in baseball you would rather sit down and listen to them tell stories than tom lasorda?  i guess i would rather sit down with vin scully now that i think about it, and i am sure every fan of a specific team has someone relative to that team that they would choose, but i bet lasorda would be in many people's top 5 or 10.  he was out in minny a few weeks ago with michael milken (yes, that michael milken) to talk about baseball's support for prostate cancer prevention, and he joined bert blyleven and dick bremer in the twins broadcast booth.  milken did most of the talking, but tommy made a reference to blyleven and managing him on a trip to japan and i was hoping for a good story to follow. no dice as the inning ended and their time was up.  i had asked doug mientkiewicz a few years ago for some tommy stories, and he said that at one point, tommy's antics got the 2000 usa baseball team into a fight at a casino, but there wasn't time for much detail.  i'd like to hear more.

frankendodger sheet 37 (cards 325-333) - now with more unibrow...

here's sheet number 37 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 325-333:

and the back:

these cards are:

325. 1961 topps wally moon
326. 2009 topps manny ramirez
327. 1969 topps willie crawford
328. 1996 upper deck collector's choice raul mondesi
329. 2011 topps update dee gordon
330. 1975 topps mike marshall
331. 2003 fleer tradition kevin brown
332. 2002 upper deck tom goodwin
333. 2003 topps shawn green

the "no brainer" of the day:

even if he is holding on to the ball, the 2011 topps update dee gordon card is fantastic, and it was going to be in this frankenset.

about the cards:

my blogging sense tells me that the wally moon card is the first 1961 topps card to make the frankenset which is surprising.  i had moon at number 5 in the set with his 1960 topps card before ultimately settling on a 1957 topps sal maglie instead.  both cards give us a good look at the trademark wally moon unibrow, but the 1961 card is, in my opinion, better.

the manny ramirez card here is a postseason highlights card that tells the tale of manny's 1.100 slugging percentage and 2 home runs hit against the cubs in the 2008 nlds.  manny also hit 2 home runs and slugged 1.067 against the phillies in the nlcs, but the dodgers came up short in that series.  manny didn't get to play in a world series with the dodgers, but he did appear in four fall classics - two with the indians and two with the red sox - and hit .243 in those series.  willie crawford's 1969 topps card tells us on the back that willie owned a .500 batting average in the world series at the time of the card's release.  of course, willie had appeared in only one world series at that time (1965), and was 1 for 2 in his plate appearances.  crawford did appear in the 1974 world series with the dodgers and hit .333 with a home run to drop his career fall classic average to .375.

like manny ramirez, raul mondesi hails from the domincan republic, although manny went to high school in new york.  mondesi's collector's choice card here mentions another caribbean ballplayer, roberto clemente, and notes that rauuuuuul was the first dodger to go 20/20 (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the same season) since kirk gibson in 1988.  in 1997, mondesi would become the first dodger to join the 30/30 club.

remember when dee gordon was a shortstop? he came up to the dodgers in 2011 and hit .304 and stole 24 bases in 56 games and we got this great card from topps as part of their update set. it's a nice example of the shortstop avoiding a slide as part of a potential double play turn, even though gordon didn't throw the ball to first.  i still include it in my dp collection, and went after the various parallels of this card in earnest.

dr. mike marshall's 1975 topps card was an important one to me as i was completing my dodger team sets in the early 1980's.  it was his first card as a dodger in the sense that he was wearing a dodger uniform (unlike his 1974 topps traded card), and it listed his stats on the back with his all important 106 games pitched in 1974. marshall was featured on two other cards in the 1975 topps set - a record breaker and a league leader - but this card was the one i was most intent on acquiring as soon as i learned that a dodger held the record for most games pitched by a reliever in a single season.

vintage card designs were abundant in 2003 with topps heritage, upper deck vintage, and fleer tradition.  at least fleer used one of their designs (1963 fleer) instead of pulling an upper deck and ripping off the 1965 topps design.  anyway, this particular kevin brown card features a peek at the dodger stadium outfield wall with the 40th anniversary of dodger stadium murals.  i loved the murals.

tom goodwin's 2002 upper deck card may be the least interesting card on the page, but at least that is tom goodwin on the card and not adrian beltre.  shawn green's 2003 topps card here is a season highlights card that addresses his week in may of 2002 when he hit 9 home runs over 7 games.  in the midst of that run was a four-homer game in which he had 2 other hits (a single and a double) for 19 total bases - a major league record.  i've written a few times about the fact that i was there for green's four-homer game, so topps should know that it wasn't just brewer fans that were giving green a standing o after he hit his fourth home run.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were still many options for these spots in the frankenset, and some of the runners-up include 1993 score select pedro astacio at number 325, 1993 donruss pedro martinez at number 326, 1982 donruss davey lopes

at number 327, 1998 pacific crown collection greg gagne at number 328, 1976 topps joe ferguson at number 329, 2013 topps update yasiel puig

at number 330, 2014 topps yasiel puig

at number 331, 1989 score mickey hatcher at number 332, and 1998 topps raul mondesi at number 333.

my favorite card on the page:

i would like the shawn green card more if it were specifically about the 4-home run game, so i'll stick with dee gordon as my favorite card on the page.

final thoughts:

i was also at the dodger/brewer game the night before green's four-homer game.  it was green's rbi triple in the third inning that produced that game's only run.  hideo nomo pitched well, and eric gagne closed things out on a throwback uniform night in which the brewers wore them but the dodgers did not.  i'm guessing that's because their road unis in 2002 were pretty close to what they wore in the early 1960's design wise, as you can tell by comparing the goodwin and moon cards above.

frankendodger sheet 27 (cards 235 - 243) - why not world champions?...

here's sheet number 27 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 235-243:

and the back:

these cards are:

235. 2009 topps chad billingsley
236. 1982 donruss robert castillo
237. 2008 topps update manny ramirez
238. 1966 topps dodger team
239. 1973 topps pete richert
240. 2015 topps stadium club josh beckett
241. 2013 topps gypsy queen chris capuano (framed white parallel)
242. 1984 o-pee-chee greg brock
243. 1979 o-pee-chee reggie smith

the "no brainer" of the day:

the manny ramirez card from 2008 topps update was perhaps the card i've most highly anticipated since the first steve garvey relic card was finally made.  card companies started putting relics in packs in 1997, but it took them until 2001 to make one of the garv.  with manny's hot start to his dodger career, i couldn't wait to get an official card of him in dodger blue.  as a result, his card was not going to be held out of this set.

about the cards:

that 2009 topps chad billingsley card comes from a time when i was pretty excited about the dodgers and bills.  the dodgers had made it to the nlcs for the first time since 1988 the previous season, and bills was coming off of a 16-win season in which he pitched 200+ innings and had 200+ strikeouts. he started the 2009 season well, and was 9-4 at the break, but faltered in the second half.  three years later, in august of 2012, i was at the game in which he was injured.  he made only two more appearances as a dodger, both in 2013, before missing all of 2014 and moving on to the phillies last year.

bobby castillo's 1982 donruss card confused me. it's got a great shot of castillo in dodger stadium, but he is referred to as "robert" on the front.  while fleer used "robert" on both their 1981 and 1982 cards of the dodger reliever, he was correctly referred to as "bobby" on the front of his 1981 donruss card (topps used "bobby" in 1979 and every year that he had a topps card thereafter) but for some reason donruss changed things up. i had never heard vin scully or jerry doggett or ross porter refer to him as robert, so i didn't understand why the change was made.  donruss eventually went back to "bobby" in 1984.

as i mentioned above, i was anxiously awaiting the 2008 topps update manny ramirez card, and wasn't disappointed.  i was, however, disappointed that upper deck scrapped their plans for an update set, even after releasing a mock-up of the manny card.

while bills and manny and the others couldn't get the dodgers to the world series in 2008, the 1965 dodgers won it all.  their 1966 topps team card only gave them props for being the national league champions, however.  i am not sure why they weren't listed as world series champions.  pete richert had been with the dodgers in 1963 when they won the world series (he didn't pitch in the series that year), but was traded away prior to the 1965 season in the claude osteen deal.  he was on his second term with the dodgers when the 1973 card was issued, but they traded him away again prior to the 1974 season and another world series berth.  luckily for richert, he spent some time with the orioles in between his dodger stints and won a ring with the o's in 1970.

josh beckett was the mvp of the 2003 world series, but that's not relevant.  his 2015 topps stadium club card is relevant because it is the only card on the sheet that doesn't have white borders.  more importantly, it serves as a final tribute for the hurler, and it also features a photo from the celebration of his no-hitter thrown on may 25, 2014 against the phillies.

the chris capuano card is another one of the three parallels that made the set (there has been a walmart black andruw jones card shown already, with another walmart parallel yet to come). i had a double of his white framed retail exclusive card, but not his base card. go figure.

the sheet finishes up with a pair of o-pee-chee cards - greg brock from 1984 and reggie smith from 1979.  neither are variations, but the bright cardstock, french on the back, and especially the logo on the 1979 card bring variety to the set nonetheless.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that were considered but omitted include 2010 topps national chicle jackie robinson

at number 235, 1986 o-pee-chee jerry reuss at number 236, 2011 topps gypsy queen roy campanella at number 237, 1961 topps jim gilliam at number 238, 1974 topps bill russell

at number 239, 2011 topps andre ethier at number 240, 2001 upper deck vintage dodger team at number 241, 1995 topps stadium club brett butler

at number 242, and 1980 o-pee-chee rick monday at number 243.

my favorite card on the page:

as much as i like manny's card and o-pee-chee in general, that josh beckett card is my favorite on this sheet.

final thoughts:

i suppose the silver lining to the 1966 topps card not listing the dodgers as world champions is that topps remained consistent and did not list the giants as champs on their 2015 topps heritage team card either. whomever wins the title in 2018 should get a team card (similar to the 1970 mets card) hailing them as world champions in 2019 heritage.

frankendodger sheet 6 (cards 46-54) - pick your poison...

here's sheet number 6 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 46-54:

and the back:

these cards are:

46. 2013 topps update yasiel puig
47. 1975 topps tommy john
48. 2003 fleer fall classic gil hodges
49. 1999 topps darren dreifort
50. 1986 donruss highlights steve sax
51. 2000 upper deck hitter's club paul waner
52. 2013 topps gypsy queen hanley ramirez
53. 1988 score mike scioscia
54. 2014 panini prizm adrian gonzalez

the "no brainer" of the day:

getting a card of paul waner (aka big poison) into the set was a good thing. as i was looking through doubles, his card jumped out to me and was the first card identified for this page.  waner, who was a dodger double dipper, actually got his 3000th hit while in between his dodger stints, but i'm pleased that upper deck included him in this set as a dodger.

about the cards:

anybody else not a fan of the 2003 fleer fall classic set?  i completed the set back in 2003, but did not care for the number of different designs fleer used in the set.  other sets have had different looking base cards, although the different looks are usually just color based, like the sets that produced the tommy john and mike scioscia cards on this sheet.  still, this card of gil hodges fits in nicely.

speaking of john, he looks pretty happy for a guy who just blew out his elbow.  and, speaking of blown out elbows - hello, darren dreifort.  i like little d's card because there are few things better for a baseball fan than a sunny day spent in chavez ravine.

the steve sax card is interesting to me, as i like the idea of this sort of set.  i think topps is doing it right this year with the topps now set, although i doubt that they will produce player of the month cards. in september of 1986, saxy hit .400 in 28 games and had a 25-game hitting streak to earn the honors and the right to have this card made.

the other cards - puig, hanley, scioscia, and adrian gonzalez all feature the away grays. at least puig's card showcases the red number.  the hanley and scioscia cards feature photos that don't allow the number to be seen, and panini likes to color that number blue for some reason.  plausible deniability, i suppose, should their cards ever be questioned as to being too easily identified by team.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there are still a lot of great cards to choose from at this point.  some of my favorite also rans from this sheet include numbers 46 1976 topps dodger team/walt alston and 1997 pinnacle zenith wilton guerrero (from a set that i really like); number 47 2002 topps tribute jackie robinson; numbers 48 2002 topps tribute gil hodges (it would look better than the hodges card currently in this spot) and 2016 topps opening day corey seager; numbers 49 2002 fleer greats steve garvey and 2013 panini hometown heroes orel hershiser; numbers 50 1977 topps ron cey, 1979 topps steve garvey and 1981 topps davey lopes (sadly, i don't think there is a bill russell card numbered 50); number 51 1960 fleer dazzy vance; number 52 2011 topps marquee matt kemp (featuring the sweet baby blue brooklyn throwbacks); numbers 53 1957 topps clem labine ("that's a $20 card!"), 1998 fleer ultra mike piazza (i can't believe i never posted this card at garveyceyrusselllopes), and 2003 fleer ultra gold medallion edition kevin brown; and number 54 2007 upper deck masterpieces jackie robinson (with yogi berra and the late tag at home in the 1955 world series).  like i said, lots of good stuff to choose from, if only i didn't have rules.

my favorite card on the page:

i'll go with the 1999 topps dreifort due to the appearance of the dodger stadium outfield wall mural in the background. one of my favorite posts over at garveyceyrusselllopes was about the different murals that the dodgers put on the wall in the late 90's/early 00's before advertising took over.

final thoughts:

i think the puig is the first checklist card to make the set, although it won't be the last.  and, is there a more useless set than panini prizm?

frankendodger sheet 4 (cards 28-36) - featuring a coach and an executive...