frankendodger sheet 77 (cards 685-693) - goodbye to vintage...

here's sheet number 77 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 685-693:

and the back:

these cards are:

685. 1970 topps tom haller
686. 1993 topps stadium club tim wallach
687. 2005 topps adam laroche
688. 1991 upper deck stan javier
689. 1992 upper deck chris gwynn
690. 1991 topps orel hershiser
691. 1998 upper deck bobby bonilla
692. 1993 upper deck todd worrell
693. 1981 topps steve howe

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1992 upper deck chris gwynn card, with the rare double play turn attempt at third base.

about the cards:

the best thing about the 1970 topps tom haller card is not fact that it actually features haller in a dodger uniform, nor that he has a look on his face that balances tolerance and annoyance for and with the photographer.  it's what is happening in the background with the two players over his left shoulder.

are they playing pepper? perhaps, but the fact that the guy with the bat is using his glove as home plate, just like we did as kids, is awesome.

i chose the 1993 topps stadium club tim wallach card for this spot over a steve garvey card from 1972 due to the fact that i didn't have a spare of the garvey card.  it's his high numbered second year card that is the most expensive to obtain.  garvey has had a good run in this frankenset, but i'm still a little bummed that he's not in this spot, too.

andy laroche's 2005 topps card is the next one up. laroche was a 39th round draft pick of the dodgers in 2003, so i suppose it's not a surprise that he had a short career.  i had hoped that he would bring stability to the hot corner for the dodgers, but he was traded to pittsburgh as part of the three-team manny ramirez/jason bay deal in 2008.

now we have stan javier's 1991 upper deck card right next to chris gwynn's 1992 upper deck card so we can see the design evolution. there's not much of a connection there, as upper deck finished their run around the bases in 1991 and went to something different in '92.  i was drawn in by the floating team logo within the picture on the 1992 cards, perhaps because i liked the 1991 topps set that had done something similar with the logo (although with a ribbon behind it) as evidenced by the 1991 topps orel hershiser card that finishes off this row.

i almost made it through the frankenset without a bobby bonilla card, but relented and put this 1998 upper deck card in at number 691.  bobby bo played for the dodgers in the last half of the 1998 season following the mike piazza trade, and i was pleased when they did not retain him for the 1999 season.

todd worrell's 1993 upper deck card features more foliage than we are used to seeing on a baseball card - both on front and back, but steve howe's 1981 topps card puts things back in a stadium where they belong.  i really liked the '81 topps design with the hats, and i have to believe that it influenced don and russ to go with the ball and glove designs for their product in the two years that followed.

cards that didn't make the cut:

1990 donruss ramon martinez at number 685, 1972 topps steve garvey

at number 686, 1992 upper deck tim crews at number 687, 1998 upper deck gary sheffield

at number 688, 1992 bowman pedro astacio at number 689, 1991 upper deck jim gott at number 690, 2002 upper deck 40 man andy ashby at number 691, 1992 donruss alfredo griffin at number 692, and 1971 topps jose pena

at number 693.

my favorite card on the page:

given the absence of the 1972 topps garvey on the page, it's a bit of a toss up.  still, i really do like the gwynn card, so it take the honors for today.

final thoughts:

it's a topic that has been thrown around the blogosphere for a long time - what is vintage? to me, vintage was always 1970 and prior, although i now see 1971 and 1972 as vintage, too.  the 1970 thing is based on when i was born. the 1970 topps set came out before i entered this world, so it's vintage. i am not. yet.  in 1984 i really began to take an interest in the 1971 set beyond the dodgers (i had a few cards, including a reggie jackson that i bought at the very first card show i attended), and an appreciation for the 1972 set followed soon thereafter. i was never really excited by the 1973 set until just a few years ago, so that's why i cut the vintage tag off with 1972.  at any rate, there was an opportunity to have the three 1970's vintage (to me) sets represented on this sheet, and only tom haller's 1970 topps card made it.  however, if a certain lawyer in new mexico wants to send me a fifth 1972 topps steve garvey card (i currently have one in the garvey collection, one in the dodger team collection, one signed in the garvey collection, and one in the 1972 topps set binder) for that 1993 stadium club tim wallach card, then the '72 garv would be the last vintage card in this set.

frankendodger sheet 46 (cards 406-414) - no pictures of pitchers...

here's sheet number 46 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 406-414:

and the back:

these cards are:

406. 1993 fleer ultra darryl strawberry
407. 2000 upper deck shawn green
408. 1994 upper deck tim wallach
409. 2015 topps juan uribe
410. 1982 topps ron cey
411. 2004 fleer tradition brian jordan
412. 1978 topps davey lopes (nlcs)
413. 2006 fleer andre ethier
414. 1975 topps manny mota

the "no brainer" of the day:

given the dearth of postseason cards made by topps for the team of my youth, the 1978 topps nlcs card featuring davey lopes was a certainty for the set.

about the cards:

no pitchers allowed on this page - just a bunch of position players.  first up is darryl strawberry on his 1993 fleer ultra card. by the time this card came out, things were pretty much at an end with darryl and the dodgers. he had missed most of the 1992 season due to a back injury (for which he had season ending surgery), but was on the field for the start of the 1993 season.  unfortunately, he hit just .140 before his back forced him to the dl in june of '93, and he never appeared in a regular season game for the dodgers again.

the 2000 upper deck shawn green card is an odd horizontal torso crop.  we'll see another one from upper deck later in the post that works better than this one.  2000 upper deck is one of my favorite upper deck sets along with 1994, which gave us the next card on the page. tim wallach doesn't get one of tommy lasorda's famous hugs, but he does get a pat on the helmet.

juan uribe looks like he's tripping over his own feet on his 2015 topps card. uribe joined the dodgers following the giants' first world series win in 2010, and he spent four-plus seasons with the blue. after struggling in 2011 and 2012, he was pretty good in 2013 and 2014. he's still playing everyday with the indians this season and seems to have outlasted the guy who replaced him in san francisco.

i was looking forward to some great cards from topps in 1982 after the dodgers won it all the previous october. i was somewhat disappointed. here we have one of the three co-mvp's of the world series, ron cey, checking his swing in front of a tarp. at least it's a photo from 1981, as cey is sporting the city of los angeles' bicentennial patch on his sleeve. the city was founded in september of 1781. it wasn't until 1848, however, that the city became part of the united states.

i think the 2004 fleer tradition brian jordan card is a short print. that makes very little sense to me. i don't think folks were clamoring for brian jordan cards in 2004. i wasn't, anyway, as jordan had left for the hotter climes of texas by then.

i was, however, very excited about the 1978 topps card that celebrated the dodgers' nlcs win over the phillies in 1977.  the lone world series card in the set is very much a yankees card (as it should be if there is just going to be one card to mark the fall classic), so i had just this one card to remember the first postseason that i recall watching.  little did i know that it would be the only postseason dodger card issued by topps in their flagship set for a long, long time.  i think i am still waiting - i don't recall any cards in the 2009 or 2010 or 2014 sets recognizing the dodgers' nlds victories the previous seasons.  anyway. it would be great if the photo used on this card was from lopes' controversial at bat in the 9th inning of game 3 in which he hit a shot that ricocheted off of mike schmidt right to larry bowa who threw to first in an attempt to record the final out of the game and preserve a 5-4 phillies win.  however, lopes was called safe, and manny mota scored the tying run. after an errant pick off throw sent lopes to second, he scored what would be the winning run on a single by bill russell.  unfortunately, the image used comes from the first at bat of game 4, in which lopes lined out to second base.  still, i like the card.

i can picture fleer card designs in my head by year from 1981 through 1991 easily. then it starts to get confusing.  was 1992 the year with the green borders? or was that 1993? 1994 and 1995 fleer i can recognize right away, but after that it's tough. anyway, 2006 fleer does not register with me.  i know this is a 2006 fleer card because it's an andre ethier rookie card, but the design is not instantly recognizable. this is due to the fact that i stopped buying fleer cards for the most part in 1987. i do like how they flipped the design on to the back of the 2006 cards, so it's got that going for it.

manny mota's 1975 topps card might be my favorite card of the set.  i've said before that 1975 topps is not my favorite, but this is a nice card.  i like the choice of the blue on top/green on bottom border, and i think it works well with this near full shot of the left field pavilion in the background.  bonus points for the three sisters palm trees and the pre-diamond vision scoreboard, too.  i do wonder, however, if that is the on deck circle behind mota, why is it so close to the baseline?

cards that didn't make the cut:

the also-rans for this page include 1988 score ken howell at number 406, 1993 fleer ultra ricky trlicek at number 407, 1974 topps charlie hough

at number 408, 2000 upper deck gary sheffield (this is the better horizontal torso crop i referred to earlier in the post - love the sheffield bat wag!)

at number 409, 1983 donruss bob welch at number 410, 1970 topps dodgers team at number 411, 1963 topps dodgers' big three (johnny podres, don drysdale, and sandy koufax)

at number 412, 1998 donruss hideo nomo at number 413, and 1990 score rick dempsey at number 414.

my favorite card on the page:

i really like the lopes card, but the 1975 topps manny mota aesthetic wins out today.

final thoughts:

this post will publish on july 4th. the dodgers and other teams will be wearing some pretty ridiculous hats to 'celebrate' the holiday, but the red, white, and blue of the regular dodger uniform should be enough.  at any rate, remember the lesson of jason pierre-paul and have a safe 4th of july!

frankendodger sheet 8 (cards 64-72) - a very pleasant good morning to you, wherever you may be...

here's sheet number 8 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 64-72:

and the back:

these cards are:

64. 1993 pinnacle darryl strawberry
65. 2013 panini cooperstown collection vin scully
66. 2014 panini golden age tom lasorda
67. 2009 topps walmart black parallel andruw jones
68. 1975 sspc charlie hough
69. 2015 panini diamond kings jim gilliam
70. 2000 upper deck mvp kevin brown
71. 1995 upper deck tim wallach
72. 1994 upper deck all-time heroes don newcombe

the "no brainer" of the day:

aside from a couple of steve garvey cards, there is probably not a bigger no-brainer in this set than vin scully's card at number 65.  topps has made a couple of cards of announcers, along with at least one of a public address announcer, but no scully card to date.  i am really hoping that with the topps now set, they will make one for at least one of the nights that the dodgers will be honoring him this year.  and, if that's the case, scully would probably get a second card in the frankenset.

about the cards:

there are three unlicensed cards on this sheet, and the lasorda is the worst of them, although i do wish jim gilliam's arms were a bit higher so that it weren't so obvious that there is no team name on the front of his jersey.  gilliam, like lasorda, was a dodger lifer. he was a coach following his playing days, and he helped the infield of my youth become the infield of my youth.  it bears repeating that his number 19 is the only number retired by the dodgers for a player/coach not in the hall of fame.  lasorda's number is also retired by the club, but he is enshrined in cooperstown as a manager.

scully is also a hall of famer, and i wonder what (if anything) the dodgers might retire in vin's honor at the end of this season.  the cardinals have jack buck as part of their outfield mural, and the giants used (do they still have them?) the ny logo for players that didn't wear numbers - a tactic that could work for scully, i suppose.  we'll just have to wait and see.  i'm in no rush to get to the end of his career.

there are better darryl strawberry cards than the pinnacle card i used, but not at number 64.  the andruw jones card is one of a couple parallels that make the set (figures i would have doubles of the walmart black version of this card, but not the regular base).  charlie hough was the closer (one of them, anyway) on the team of my youth which is odd for a knuckleballer, but he looks happy on the sspc card and i am glad to have another player from the 1978 dodgers in the set.

the kevin brown card kind of reminds me of that 1976 topps tom seaver record breaker card due to the generic looking red helmet in the foreground of the card.  in the 8-spot on the page, we have a tim wallach card that won't be going to new mexico anytime soon (i do have some others that will be headed to a certain lawyer out there), and the last card on the page is perhaps the best card from the 2004 upper deck all-time heroes set.  newk was a good hitting pitcher (he hit .271 over his career), and it's nice to have a card showing his style at the plate.  he will turn 90 in about a month's time, and his presence around the club for the last few decades puts him in the manny mota territory of will they/won't they waive the hof requirement (as they did for gilliam) and retire his number.  i would guess it is less likely that newcombe's number is retired since he has not been in uniform the way mota was for all those post-playing days.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there was at least one other card on this page other than the scully that wasn't going to be bumped for anyone else, but there were some tempting options.  some of the cards that didn't quite make it include some "great" ones such as 2000 fleer greats of the game preacher roe (#64), 2002 fleer greats of the game hack wilson (#65), 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game steve garvey (#66), 2003 fleer flair greats don drysdale (#66), 2011 topps marquee clayton kershaw (#67), 1963 topps duke snider/gil hodges "friendly foes" (#68), 2003 fleer focus jersey edition shawn green (#69),

1994 upper deck collector's choice brett butler (#70), 1958 topps dodger team (#71), and 1989 upper deck brian holton,

but not that one - the one that is really shawn hillegas (#72).

that last one didn't stand a chance against newk's card, and i have a better known player swap later in the set.  i also originally had planned to put a different jim gilliam card (his 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers 1954 topps reprint card) at #69 but went with the panini card instead.

my favorite card on the page:

it's vin, without a doubt.

final thoughts:

i've been watching a bunch of dodger home games through my mlb.tv subscription this year to get my vin scully fix, which means i've been very tired on several mornings.  i missed vin's dissertation on beards, however, so had to check that out on deadspin.  what a treasure, indeed.