frankendodger sheet 79 (cards 703-711) - an award winning sheet...

here's sheet number 79 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 703-711:

and the back:

these cards are:

703. 1991 score fernando valenzuela
704. 2002 upper deck 40 man jeff reboulet
705. 1996 upper deck collector's choice hideo nomo
706. 1986 topps pedro guerrero
707. 2009 upper deck eric stults
708. 2009 upper deck jason schmidt
709. 2005 topps cesar izturis
710. 1982 topps jerry reuss
711. 1991 donruss carlos hernandez

the "no brainer" of the day:

not a one of these qualify for no brainer status.

about the cards:

fernando valenzuela in 1990 was not the fernando of 1981, to be sure, but he threw a no-hitter against the cardinals in late june to earn this 1991 score card commemorating the feat.  johnny vandermeer was safe, however, as fernando allowed 10 hits in both his start before and after the no-no.

jeff reboulet looks serious about his mustache and baseball on his 2002 upper deck 40 man card. reboulet played for the dodgers in 2001 and 2002, and appeared in over half of the team's games in 2001, but aside from 40 man and topps total, he was ignored by the card companies during his dodger tenure.  even with that mustache.

upper deck let us know that hideo nomo was named the national league's rookie of the year in 1995 with this card from their 1996 set.  i've always wondered whether nomo himself considered it to be appropriate that he was eligible for the award. i had (and have) no problem with major league players coming from other countries and winning the roy as they are eligible per the definition of a major league rookie, but the braves fans in '95 were not to keen about the award going to someone who had been playing in a different country's major leagues prior to coming to america.

pedro guerrero was representing the dodgers in the 1986 topps all-star subset.  the back of the card lets us know that he led the league in on-base percentage (he also led in slugging percentage) as part of his fantastic 1985 season.  my only gripe about this card is that it doesn't match the 1986 topps design as closely as the all-star cards from 1985 matched that year's design.

i was looking for the all-star designation to replace the team name up top, with the rest of the card remaining the same. and, without the topps logo on the front, it looks like a pretty generic, broder-esque card.

now comes the time when i give thanks to 2009 upper deck. back-to-back with eric stults and jason schmidt means one or two less 1990 target cards in the set.  this is another spot where i am hoping that this year's heritage high numbers can make a difference.

cesar izturis won a gold glove in 2004, just as topps was making cards to honor the winners of that award.  we've not had cards for silver sluggers before (although the bats have shown up on a card or two), but there were a few years there in the 2000's that we got gold glover cards.  i'm not complaining - in fact, i would have liked this in the mid-1970's when steve garvey won four in a row.

it seems like we've been seeing a lot of jerry reuss lately, and here he is again with his 1982 topps card.  this card's photo is all about spring training with the grassy knoll in the background.

last card on the sheet is carlos hernandez's 1991 donruss card.  it's from the green border part of the set, which looks worse than the blue border part of the set.  i would like to have seen the designs that donruss passed on when they chose their 1991 design.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2002 upper deck 40 man darren dreifort at number 703, 2009 upper deck mark loretta at number 704, 2009 upper deck cory wade at number 705, 2009 upper deck casey blake at number 706, 1989 upper deck mickey hatcher

at number 709, 1992 donruss steve wilson at number 710, and 1981 topps joe ferguson

at number 711.

my favorite card on the page:

the jeff reboulet stare/mustache combo is tough to beat, but i like the pedro guerrero card the most even though it is really generic and not tied too closely to the 1986 topps set design.

final thoughts:

we are very near the end of these posts, and i haven't really acknowledged the fact that i am standing on the shoulders of other bloggers who popularized the frankenset concept long before i started the frankendodger project. the first frankenset i knew of was ben henry's topps flagship frankenset. dayf had both a allen & ginter and a topps heritage frankenset, and night owl has a night card and, i believe, an a&g mini frankenset as well.  $30 a week habit has the serial number insanity set, and nick at dimeboxes has his dimebox frankenset.  jeff at 2x3 heroes and jon at penny sleeve for your thoughts are both going for topps buyback frankensets, which is great. brian at hsca also has a team-centered frankenset (go twinkies), and i am sure there are others.  thanks to all for the inspiration.

frankendodger sheet 76 (cards 676-684) - kiki with an i not an e...

here's sheet number 76 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 676-684:

and the back:

these cards are:

676. 1990 score kiki jones
677. 2002 upper deck 40 man paul loduca
678. 1994 bowman antonio osuna
679. 1980 topps dodgers future stars (joe beckwith/mickey hatcher/dave patterson)
680. 1985 topps jerry reuss
681. 1983 topps dodgers leaders (pedro guerrero/fernando valenzuela)
682. 1993 topps john candelaria
683. 1994 topps cory snyder
684. 1992 score jeff hamilton

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose the 1980 topps dodgers future stars card is the closest thing to a no brainer here, but not sure that it qualifies. i'll make as good a case as i can below.

about the cards:

keith "kiki" jones was 8-0 in the rookie league in 1989, prompting score to add him to their 1990 set.  he never did make it to the big leagues despite a good arm and curveball, according to scouts - another dodger first round pick that didn't pan out.

paul loduca may or may not have had some illegal help in getting to the big leagues (he was named in the mitchell report), but he made it, and found himself in the 2002 upper deck 40 man set.  this was the evolution of upper deck's victory set, which was similar to topps total.  as a team collector, i appreciate sets like these, although the 2003 40 man set is better, in my opinion.

1994 bowman is here with antonio osuna and so much foil!  everytime i see a card of antonio osuna, i find myself looking for that monstrous pendant he wore around his neck the first time i saw him pitch.

the first rookie cards i saw were the 4-in-1 cards in the 1978 topps set. those cards, in keeping tradition with what was produced from 1974 through '78, had multiple teams represented on each card (in 1973, the rookie cards had three players from different teams on them).  in 1979, topps gave me a card with just dodgers on it, but it was in black and white.  then, in 1980, they gave me this trio of dodgers in full color!  shades of 1972, i would eventually learn.  anyway, i knew who all three of these guys (joe beckwith, mickey hatcher, and dave patterson) were because they had played for the dodgers in 1979 - in fact, i still remember listening to the game in which hatcher made his major league debut because he came up with the bases loaded and vin scully noted that he had a chance to do something very rare in his first big league at bat.  well, hatcher didn't hit a grand slam, but he did walk.  i was pretty happy to have this card in 1980, even though patterson never made it back to the majors.

jerry reuss makes another appearance in the set with his 1985 topps card. he looks pretty happy to be in vero beach, and i can't really blame him given the circumstances.   he wound up sporting a 2.92 era in 1985, which didn't even crack the top ten in the national league.  he also lost 10 games with an era split of 1.21 in his wins, and 7.03 in his losses.  his era in the 1985 postseason was 10.80 - can you guess what the game outcome was?

pedro guerrero and fernando valenzuela were the dodgers' batting and pitching leaders in 1982, respectively.  i know this thanks to this 1983 topps card that marks the return of the dodger logo to topps cards for the first time since what, 1963?

in hindsight, i am left wondering why the logo is in a box rather than a circle, since all of the other 1983 topps cards have circles (portholes, if you will). 1984 is the one with squares (picture in picture, i call it).

john candelaria's 1993 topps card is right next to cory snyder's 1994 topps card, so you can try to find some back-to-back design evolutionary ties.  i can't find any, really, but i was happy that topps went back to the landscape oriented backs in '94.  snyder's card, with him camped out on second base, reminds me of my final little league (minors) game.  i was 9 and on third base. two of my friends were on second and first, respectively, and a kid that we only knew through baseball was at the plate.  two outs, full count, down by a run with the league championship on the line - all of the cliches you can think of. the kid at bat swung at ball 4 and the game was over. my friend sat on second base and looked pretty much the same way snyder does on his card.

last card on the sheet is jeff hamilton's 1992 score card.  that's pretty much all i have to say about that.  oh, all right - i'll mention that hamilton was the losing pitcher in the 22-inning game between the astros and dodgers in 1989. he struck out ken caminiti (and billy hatcher), but was beat by a rafael ramirez walk-off single. this was the same game that ended with eddie murray playing third base and fernando valenzuela at first.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2006 upper deck ricky ledee at number 676, 2006 upper deck sandy alomar jr

at number 677, 2002 upper deck 40 man mark grudzielanek at number 678, 1981 topps dodgers team

at number 679, 2002 upper deck 40 man paul quantrill at number 680, 1982 topps dodgers future stars (mike marshall/ron roenicke/steve sax) - my last double was sent out for some ttm action -

at number 681, 1987 topps jerry reuss at number 682, 2002 upper deck 40 man eric gagne at number 683, and 2002 upper deck 40 man giovanni carrara at number 684.

my favorite card on the page:

as much as i appreciate seeing disappointed cory snyder on second base, i like the 1980 topps future stars card more.

final thoughts:

the dodgers currently have a player on their roster named enrique hernandez.  his nickname, like that of keith jones, is pronounced by many as "key-key".  however, enrique spells it with an "e" on the end, rather than the second "i", and it is actually pronounced "key-kay".  it's all about the accent over the "e".  anyway, the first time i saw enrique's nickname in print (without the accent), i was a bit surprised, as it is commonly known to be a slur for jewish people.  i am pretty sure this is why topps cards show his name as enrique,

and not his nickname.

frankendodger sheet 74 (cards 658-666) - let's find out which upper deck number of the beast makes the set...

here's sheet number 74 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 658-666:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 663 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number 74; front and back]

these cards are:

658. 1994 upper deck collector's choice todd hollandsworth
659. 1990 target jerry reuss
660. 1976 topps dave lopes
661. 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu
662. 1998 donruss collections preferred wilton guerrero
663. 1990 target paul richards2020 topps heritage high numbers alex wood
664. 1987 topps mike marshall
665. 1990 topps sandy koufax
666. 1989 upper deck kirk gibson

the "no brainer" of the day:

i knew that number 666 was going to be an upper deck card, and of the seven i had to choose from, the gibby was a no brainer.

about the cards:

upper deck was already over raul mondesi when they launched their collector's choice brand in 1994. while mondesi would go on to win the rookie of the year award that season, he had just a regular card in the set, and todd hollandsworth got this rookie class subset card instead.  holly would win the rookie of the year award two years later, but by then upper deck was all about karim garcia and wilton guerrero as far as dodger rookies were concerned.

it's time for another card from the 1990 target set to fill a hole. this time, it's friend of the blogging community jerry reuss.  i remember reading about reuss playing in a men's amateur baseball league following his retirement, but he was not allowed to pitch.  i played in a men's league for a few years and faced a few former minor league pitchers, and i can definitely understand amateurs not wanting to face a former big leaguer - the minor leaguers were tough enough.  i should point out that there was a card that i could have put here, but it is not the best (it's a plain fleer checklist), and knowing that reuss's target card was number 659, i chose reuss even though it puts two cards from target on this sheet.

this next card is, i believe, the final card of one of the infielders in this set. it's davey lopes's 1976 topps card.  there are no italics on the back of the card, but if there were, the stolen base totals for 1975 and 1976 would be italicized to denote the fact that lopes led the league in both of those seasons.  he finished third a couple of times later on, but never regained the top spot.  for his career, lopes ranks 26th all-time in steals and it looks to be a while before anyone bumps him to 27th.

hyun-jin ryu brings one of his multitude of 2013 topps cards to the set at number 661. this is the base version - i think there are three or four different photos for this card. it's nonsense, but i believe i have them all. i didn't pay much, but they should be even cheaper now with ryu having been injured for so long. i no longer actively chase photo variations, but may wind up getting a couple of the '42' variations in 2016 topps series 2.

1998 donruss collections returns with a preferred wilton guerrero card.  once again, these are just retooled cards from regular donruss issues, with all releases put into one set.  you have to look closely for the actual card number - it's not the number in the top corner, it's down below.

where i had an option at 659, there was no other alternative at 663 than a target card.  this one doesn't even feature a guy in a dodger uniform, as paul richards is shown in what i believe to be a white sox uniform (richards was their manager in the early 1950's and then again in 1976).  in fact, richards appeared in only three games for the 1932 brooklyn dodgers going 0 for 8 at the plate. he played for three other teams in the majors, with the last being the tigers in 1946. happy to have alex wood show up at 663 so that i could remove paul richards and his non-dodger uniform from the set. i was also happy to see wood return to the dodgers and help them win the 2020 fall classic. wood's photo here shows a bit of the 2020 all-star game patch that the dodgers wore during spring training prior to the pandemic.

mike marshall's 1987 topps card reminds me that his offensive production took a big step backwards in 1986.  he had hit 28 homers, driven in 95 runs, and posted a .293 average in 1985 - not on par with his minor league numbers, but still headed in the right direction.  in 1986, however, his average dropped by 60 points, and he played in 30 fewer games.  he rebounded a bit in 1987, getting his average back up to .294, but he never did get his slugging percentage back up to where it had been in 1985.  he had a reputation for not playing hurt, but for me, all that was forgotten with the 1988 world series and marshall's 3-run homer in game 2 to turn a 2-0 lead into 5-0 in the third inning.

it was a nice thing when topps started using old cards for the turn back the clock subsets in the late 1980's, and in 1990 we were treated to sandy koufax's 1965 card. at the time, i figured it was probably the only way that i would have that card in my collection, but i am happy to say that i was wrong.

still need one for the '65 set, though.

last card on the sheet is one of kirk gibson's 1989 upper deck cards. this one features him on his way to first base after hitting his walk-off home run in game 1 of the 1988 world series.  young gcrl is out there in the right field pavilion losing his mind and trying to take some pictures.  astute upper deck collectors noticed over the next few years that it was always a dodger at number 666 in the upper deck sets, and it was no coincidence as revealed in the 'card sharks' book. the guy who set the checklist for upper deck was a giants fan.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1974 topps lee lacy at number 658, 1988 fleer checklist at number 659, 1992 topps stadium club eric davis at number 660, 1983 topps bill russell

at number 661, 1989 upper deck kirk gibson at number 662, 1990 donruss alejandro pena at number 664, 1986 topps alejandro pena at number 665, and several upper deck flagship cards from 1990 through 1993,

and then again in 2002 and 2006

at number 666.

my favorite card on the page:

it's either the lopes or the gibson, and i have to go with world series heroics over the second baseman of the team of my youth.

final thoughts:

two of these cards are the last cards in their respective set - the 1976 topps lopes and the 2013 topps hyun-jin ryu - which drives home the point that there are not very many sets left to choose cards from. i didn't realize in 1978 that it was the first year for the 726 card set size. had i really started collecting in 1977 (i was given my first pack of cards that year), this frankenset would have ended with davey lopes up there.  as it is, we get a few more pages.

frankendodger sheet 17 (cards 145-153) - now with more southpaws...

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

here's sheet number 17 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 145-153:

and the back:

here's how the page originally looked:

these cards are:

145. 1993 pacific kevin gross
146. 2007 topps heritage delwyn young
147. 2009 bowman blake dewitt
148. 2003 bowman heritage fred mcgriff
149. 2006 topps opening day hong-chih kuo
150. 1976 topps steve garvey 2016 bowman corey seager
151. 1972 topps jim brewer
152. 1991 topps mickey hatcher
153. 1981 o-pee-chee jerry reuss

the "no brainer" of the day:

the card that probably comes closest is the jim brewer card.  i have several 1972 topps jim brewer cards for some reason, so he was an early pick to represent that set as i was piecing this project together.

about the cards:

the pacific card comes from their first foray into the bilingual card market, and is nowhere near as crazy as their designs would get later in the decade.  delwyn (not delmon) young came up to the dodgers around the same time as matt kemp and andre ethier.  his cause wasn't helped by ned picking up the likes of juan pierre, luis gonzalez, and andruw jones to patrol the outfield, and he was always the odd man out. he was dealt to the pirates in 2009.

blake dewitt was another guy who had some time with the dodgers, including a decent rookie season in 2008, but again, ned went out and picked up casey blake. dewitt was dealt to the cubs in 2010.  it wasn't ned, but dan evans who was the gm that brought in fred mcgriff for the 2003 season to replace eric karros who was going to chicago to replace (along with future dodger hee seop choi) mcgriff.  the crime dog had hit 30 homers the year before, but managed only 13 as a dodger.  i was looking forward to some cards of mcgriff in dodger blue, and this bowman heritage card was one of the first that i saw.

three of the last five cards on the sheet belong to lefty pitchers. hong-chih kuo's 2006 opening day card is interesting because he was a non-closer reliever even at that point in his career, and i was surprised that he made the opening day checklist, as that set is smaller than flagship.  the other two leftys are former dodger closer jim brewer on a 1972 topps card, and friend of the blogosphere jerry reuss on his 1981 o-pee-chee card.  brewer was done pitching by the time i started to follow the game, but reuss has provided me with some great memories including his no-hitter against the giants and his great pitching performances in the 1981 postseason against the astros and yankees.  it felt right to use a 1981 card for him.

the other two cards on the sheet are corey seager's 2016 bowman card steve garvey's 1976 topps card (which gets the hero number exemption from my lack of set/player duplication rule) and mickey hatcher's 1991 topps card.  i was pretty happy to see seager's bowman card come out as number 150.  this way, the diversity of the set is maintained, and i get seager in the set.  he looks like he will be the real deal, and i hope that he and joc pederson and julio urias and clayton kershaw and jose deleon have many successful years together with the dodgers.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were lots of good options at number 145, including 1968 topps don drysdale, 1971 topps bill singer, and 1978 topps rick monday (the card where he's wiping the mustard away from his mouth).

other cards that wound up not making the sheet include 1980 topps and 1986 fleer bob welch cards at number 146, one of roy campanella's cards from 1994 upper deck all-time heroes at number 147, 1985 topps steve yeager or 1993 upper deck carlos hernandez at number 148, 1997 bowman joe lagarde

at number 149, 1963 topps johnny podres at number 150, 1973 topps wes parker and 2014 topps stadium club sandy koufax

at number 151, 1959 topps johnny klippstein at number 152, and 1996 topps tom candiotti at number 153.

my favorite card on the page:

i'll exclude garvey from contention and pick the kevin gross card.  it features an often used photo angle, but i never tire of seeing the visitor's bullpen fence in the background of a card.

final thoughts:

just like with the hero exemption at 100, i have rethought the exemption at 150.  with corey seager's 2016 bowman card at number 150, he has replaced the 1976 garvey there just as the 1990 bowman hubie brooks card has replaced the matt kemp card at 100.  after making those swaps, the frankenset is truly diverse through the first 20 pages.