frankendodger sheet 44 (cards 388-396) - night owl's favorite card makes the cut...

here's sheet number 44 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 388-396:

and the back:

these cards are:

388. 1998 donruss paul konerko
389. 1998 pacific online gary sheffield
390. 1975 topps ron cey
391. 2008 upper deck first edition blake dewitt
392. 2010 topps carlos monasterios
393. 1995 fleer ultra pedro astacio
394. 1989 topps orel hershiser
395. 1990 fleer alfredo griffin
396. 1998 upper deck collector's choice todd zeile

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the pacific online sheffield checklist.  i have foregone all of the other dodger cards in the online set because i knew i had doubles of this card and it is so "pacific". i like the big dodger logo right in the center of this card, too.

about the cards:

paul konerko makes his first (and only) appearance in the set via a card from 1998 donruss. spirit of the game was originally an insert set, but at some point donruss made it a subset of the regular set. konerko took his spirit to cincinnati at the 1998 all-star break before settling in with the white sox for a very productive career.

gary sheffield got front billing (and deservedly so) for the dodger team checklist in the 1998 pacific online set.  this was a great set, with 29 dodgers represented, including short-timers like thomas howard, matt luke, tom prince, and trenidad hubbard.  i never did check out any of the links when they were active - i wonder what they looked like.

next up is night owl's favorite card - the 1975 topps ron cey.  he has discussed the fantastic-ness of this card many times, so i won't try to tell you anything more about it. instead, i'll reiterate my opinion that the pants blake dewitt is wearing on his 2008 upper deck first edition card are the worst baseball pants of all time. i think they look terrible, and i am not a crabby old fart.  carlos monasterios is also wearing bad baseball pants on his 2010 topps card.  i prefer his 2010 bowman card

but it isn't numbered 392.

pedro astacio gets the call to represent 1995 fleer ultra, which is about two years before i would say the set actually became anything special.  my favorite thing about astacio is they way he used to wiggle his arm as it hung from his side while he was checking the signs.   i also "threw" a no-hitter with him on the old tony larussa baseball game for pc in the late 1990's.

there were a lot of orel hershiser cards issued in 1989, and this topps all-star card is one of them. hershiser was the nl rhp in the subset, and kirk gibson was the pinch hitter, as opposed to the dh for the american league. i thought that was a nice touch by topps.

alfredo griffin's 1990 fleer set is, like the rest of the set in my opinion, forgettable. griffin had a much better year in 1989 than he had in 1988 at the plate, but the ring is the thing, and by that account 1988 was a much better season.

last card of this page is the 1998 collector's choice todd zeile.  zeile looks like he might be boning his bat (that's something players did back in the day, with mark grace apparently preferring a cow femur).  i like most of all the fact that this card displays the jackie robinson patch that the dodgers wore in 1997, although it is not my favorite card to do so.

cards that didn't make the cut:

those that tried and failed include 2011 topps kenley jansen (with a lurking davey lopes as the phillies' first base coach)

at number 388, 1960 topps maury wills (luis swipes base)

at number 389, 1972 topps willie davis at number 390, 1973 topps lee lacy at number 391, 1996 topps stadium club tom candiotti at number 392, 1998 upper deck collector's choice jose vizcaino at number 393, 1992 bowman dave anderson at number 394, 1990 score willie randolph at number 395, and 1997 upper deck greg gagne (with future dodger rickey henderson!)

at number 396.

my favorite card on the page:

the red background on the todd zeile card, along with the jackie robinson patch, puts this one on top for me.  you know i like that card if i passed on the gagne card to get it in the set.

final thoughts:

seeing the gagne card reminds me that i wanted to get rickey into the set, but did not do so.  i took another look at his dodger cards, and i think i've found a spot for him.  i actually have 4 or 5 cards to replace, and i'll update all of the posts accordingly.

frankendodger sheet 31 (cards 271-279) - it's the base on balls that makes it so bad...

here's sheet number 31 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 271-279:

and the back:

these cards are:

271. 2003 bowman leigh neuage
272. 1997 donruss todd zeile
273. 2004 topps heritage jeromy burnitz
274. 1995 pinnacle ramon martinez
275. 1984 donruss jose morales
276. 2010 upper deck doug mientkiewicz
277. 1989 topps mike davis
278. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams kirk gibson
279. 1991 topps jose gonzalez (billy bean)

the "no brainer" of the day:

there is only one card of doug mientkiewicz as a dodger, and, since i used to have a pc of the guy, his 2010 upper deck card was a certainty for this set.

about the cards:

the bowman neuage card brings up thoughts of what might have been had neuage not passed away in 2003. i posted the chrome version of his card on my flagship blog, and shortly thereafter received an email from neuage's father relaying the news and providing a link to his online memorial.

todd zeile has two cards in the 1997 donruss set, and when i chose his card to fill this slot i realized that i only had one copy. i ordered another from sportlots, but chose the wrong one.  hate when that happens.  i finally got it right with my next order.  jeromy burnitz's 2004 topps heritage card is not his best card from 2004 (we'll see that one later on) but it fits in the set so there it is.

i may be in the minority, but i prefer the pinnacle cards like this 1995 ramon martinez over the black bordered sets they put out in the early 1990's.  i also prefer 1984 donruss to all other donruss sets of the 80's and 90's.  that jose morales card is great.  i assume that gary carter is crouching behind the plate, and the card features a shot we don't see too often on baseball cards.  also, it's great that donruss listed morales as a catcher, but he never went behind the plate during his dodger tenure which began in 1982.

doug mientkiewicz was probably my favorite player on the twins in the early 2000's, and i was happy that he was able to take his gold glove to boston and win a ring in 2004, adding to the gold medal he won in 2000 thanks to his home run heroics.  i was also glad to see him with the dodgers in 2009. i met him once at a card show and talked to him for a few minutes.  he had a few tommy stories to tell (lasorda was the manager of the 2000 olympic team) and mentioned that disney had been kicking around the idea of a movie about that team.  it would be interesting to see who they would have cast as lasorda.

and now we get to the happy circumstance that puts a 1989 topps mike davis card in front of a 2004 upper deck legends kirk gibson card.  one can't help but think of davis batting in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 1 of the 1988 world series with two outs and drawing the walk that made gibby's impossible home run possible.  after the radio silence and vin scully's improbable/impossible quote, joe garagiola noted that it was davis's walk that turned the home run into a game winner.  davis also homered later in the series, and what had been a frustrating season for him turned out to be one that is still celebrated by dodger fans.

finally, we have the 1991 topps  jose gonzalez card that actually features a photo of billy bean.  outside of the 1990 target set, there is no other card that i know of that shows bean as a dodger.  it's too bad that he doesn't get the name credit.  these days, bean is mlb's ambassador of inclusion which is great except that it is unfortunate that such a position is needed at all.

cards that didn't make the cut:

there were quite a few cards that could have been on this sheet, including a number of topps flagship cards like 2002 topps chan ho park at number 271, 1977 topps lee lacy

at number 272, 1983 topps mark belanger

at number 273, 1984 topps rick monday at number 274, 2011 topps clayton kershaw at number 275, 1967 topps bruce brubaker at number 276, 1988 topps alejandro pena at number 277, 1960 topps stan williams at number 278, and 1991 topps jose gonzalez (that really is jose gonzalez)

at number 279.

my favorite card on the page:

despite a few good ones here, i'll perhaps surprise folks and pick the morales card over dougie, gibby, and billy/jose.

final thoughts:

it is unlikely that we will hear vin scully call the world series this season, at least for national radio as he did in 1988 among other years.  he has already turned down an invitation to broadcast (or even be part of) the all-star game, and it doesn't seem likely that the dodgers will win the pennant given the fact that they don't win very much unless kershaw is on the mound. hopefully, they pull it together and "win for vin".