frankendodger sheet 68 (cards 604-612) - don't sweat it...

here's sheet number 68 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 604-612:

and the back:

these cards are:

604. 1992 topps chris gwynn
605. 1979 topps rick monday
606. 1981 fleer steve garvey
607. 1988 topps mickey hatcher
608. 1991 bowman tom goodwin
609. 1982 topps rick sutcliffe
610. 1983 topps steve garvey
611. 1994 topps todd worrell
612. 2006 topps dodgers team

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be steve garvey's last topps flagship card of him as a dodger.

about the cards:

chris gwynn could have been on this sheet twice instead of garvey, but i only gave him one spot. i chose sweaty chris gwynn and his 1992 topps card to start the sheet rather than use his 1989 upper deck card a couple of spots later.

rick monday was hitting .292 with 13 homers and 39 rbi heading into july of 1978 when he was voted in by the fans to start the all-star game for the national league. by the end of july, he was hitting .258 and still had 13 homers and 39 rbi. still, he was able to secure the all-star banner on his 1979 topps card thanks to his decent first half and the ballot-stuffing dodger fans.

it was pretty cool for a dodger and steve garvey fan to open packs of 1981 fleer and find out that the garv had two cards in the set.  this one was part of what would become the 'superstar special' subset in later fleer releases, and it recognizes garvey for having the most hits in the national league in 1980.  or, as fleer puts it, "most hits nl".  willie wilson also got an extra card in '81 fleer, as he led all players in hits with 230 (30 more than garvey) as well as in runs scored.

mickey hatcher was ok during the 1988 regular season, but his 1988 topps card here reminds me of his world series heroics that year.  after hitting .293 with one home run in the regular season, hatcher hit .368 with 2 home runs in 5 games against the a's.  had hershiser not been lights out in two games, i am sure that hatcher would have been the mvp of the series.

tom goodwin's 1991 bowman card features the future dodger double dipper wearing the always cool dual-ear flap helmet.  cards like this made me feel closer to the big leagues thanks to the helmets i wore while playing baseball. steve garvey even wore the dual-ear flaps a few times.

rick sutcliffe's 1982 topps card was his last as a dodger, as he had been traded to the indians in december of 1981. all he did after that was lead the american league in era in '82 and then win the cy young in '84 after being traded to the cubbies. speaking of last topps cards as a dodger, here's steve garvey's 1983 flagship card.  at least garvey got the o-pee-chee team and text variation treatment that year, while sutcliffe's 1982 opc card was too far along when the trade was made for the good canadian card makers to slap on the 'traded' text and different team affiliation.

todd worrell was still on his way back from injury when he signed with the dodgers for the 1993 season. he missed a fair chunk of the early '93 campaign which is reflected in the stats on the back of his 1994 topps card.  by 1995, worrell was back to his old self, and he set the dodger single season record for saves - a mark he broke the following year.

final card on the page is the 2006 topps dodger team card. these are your wild card winning dodgers who got swept out of the nlds by the mets, except the card uses the team photo from 2005 so jim tracy is still there instead of grady little, along with other missing players.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2014 topps clayton kershaw at number 604, 1978 topps rick rhoden

at number 605, 1991 topps jim gott at number 606, 1989 upper deck chris gwynn

at number 607, 2009 topps heritage jon garland at number 608, 1991 bowman darryl strawberry at number 609, 1984 topps steve sax at number 610, 2005 topps brad penny at number 611, and 1991 upper deck dennis cook

at number 612.

my favorite card on the page:

i like the 'bonus' 1981 fleer garvey card, and his 1983 topps card also has meaning, but my favorite here is the rick monday card due to the all-star banner.

final thoughts:

that is a lot of pink/purple for the dodgers, even if the bowman design was the same for all teams. night owl did a study and noted this pink dodger phenomenon that thankfully ended with the 1988 set. let's hope it stays that way.

frankendodger sheet 64 (cards 568-576) - 1990 target to the rescue...

here's sheet number 64 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 568-576:

and the back:

[update! - i replaced card number 572 as the 1990 target dodgers were meant to be place holders. so, here's sheet number64; front and back]

these cards are:

568. 1993 upper deck jody reed
569. 1973 topps walt alston and coaches
570. 1960 topps don drysdale
571. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee scott elbert
572. 1990 target don newcombe 2022 topps max muncy
573. 1994 topps steve wilson
574. 2009 topps heritage national convention roy campanella
575. 1974 topps steve garvey
576. 1999 fleer tradition adrian beltre

the "no brainer" of the day:

there was literally no other option for number 572, but steve garvey's 1974 topps card was almost as certain to be in this set as his 1978 topps card.

about the cards:

jody reed spent just the 1993 season with the dodgers, and upper deck got him in the latter part of the set in dodger blue.  reed did ok at the plate, and he was pretty good in the field (i think he set a team record for fewest errors by a second baseman - insert steve sax joke here), but he chose to turn down the team's 3-year offer of over $7 million.  reed wound up making just $350,000 with the brewers in 1994 and fred claire tried to put an end to the revolving door at second base by acquiring delino deshields from the expos in exchange for pedro martinez.

1973 was tom lasorda's first year on manager walt alston's coaching staff (he replaced danny ozark who was hired to manage the phillies), and topps was able to get him on alston's card, perhaps only because this card was featured in one of the later series.  tommy, along with red adams, monty basgall, and jim gilliam, remained on alston's staff until smokey retired with a couple of games left in the 1976 season.  that's when tommy took over and kept the coaching staff intact, adding preston gomez to replace him as the third base coach.

more vintage don drysdale in the set, this time with his 1960 topps all-star card.  perhaps the best thing about this card is the cartoon on the back that actually uses the word 'moider' in full on cartoon tough guy-ese.  moider is actually a word all on its own, meaning to bother, but that's not what topps meant.

here's upper deck's o-pee-chee set from 2009 again, represented by scott elbert.  there is nothing o-pee-chee about this set, and when they changed the design to not resemble the 1977 cards they should have also changed the name of the set.  the only o-pee-chee thing about the release was the 1971 buybacks and one of the insert sets that used an old hockey set design.

and so it has finally come to this - i had to use a card from the 1990 target set to fill a spot on the sheet.  i'm glad that it's don newcombe breaking the seal on that set, and also glad that number 572 is not one of the numbers that was skipped in the set. max muncy fills the first spot that had been taken by the 1990 target set with his 2022 flagship card. the 2022 design is forgetful in my opinion, but i am happy to have a standard sized card here.

steve wilson is back, just a few pages after we saw his 1994 fleer card. this 1994 topps card shows the lefty in dodger stadium, so it is automatically better than that fleer card in my opinion.

the next card is somewhat of an oddball, which is rare for such a high numbered card.  it's a card produced by topps under their heritage brand for the 2009 national convention featuring roy campanella.  i find the card interesting because in 2009, topps heritage was using the 1960 design, and this is clearly a 1959 style card.  also interesting is that campy already had a card in the 1959 topps set (his symbol of courage card), and if topps wanted to make a campy card that should have been, they should have made a 1958 style card for his final tribute.  the card starts to make sense when you see that the text at the bottom notes that campy was named an honorary coach in january of 1959, but by then the dodgers were in los angeles, so why the brooklyn cap and brooklyn dodger team affiliation?  weird, but i like having it here in the frankenset.

i will try not to ramble on too much about steve garvey's 1974 topps card, but it is my second favorite garvey card just behind his 1978 topps card.

and, thanks to topps' throwback thursday sets, i will very soon have in my possession a card that features both the 1974 and 1978 cards.

this card is from last week's set featuring players who have won the all-star game mp award twice. i always thought that garvey was the first, but apparently willie mays accomplished the feat in the 1960's. others in the set are gary carter, cal ripken jr, and mike trout.  i only purchased the garvey.  as for the '74 card itself, i first saw it in 1979 when i started collecting dodger team sets back to 1970, and i was in awe.  it was horizontal, for one thing.  the only horizontal cards i had in my collection at that time were team checklists. league leaders, and manager cards. not actual player cards.  and then there was the composition of the photo - game action garvey with the out of focus fans in the background - which i found to be somewhat mesmerizing.  i didn't care too much that 1974 was also the year that he won the nl mvp award; for me it was just about the card.  i carried a version of this card in my wallet in the early 1990's through 2003 or so, and then i resurrected it last year.  it's not in my wallet right now (only because i went back to a valet style wallet), but it will probably work its way back in there at some point.

last card on the sheet is a 1999 fleer tradition adrian beltre card. beltre is proving fleer right by still going strong in 2016. he is just about 130 hits shy of 3,000 for his career and should reach that milestone sometime early next summer.  earlier this year, he collected his 950th hit as a ranger, which passed his hit total as a dodger.  when he goes into the hall of fame, my money is on him wearing a rangers hat.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2001 topps chrome eric gagne at number 569, 1975 topps jim wynn

at number 570, 1970 topps jim brewer at number 571, 1966 topps darrell griffith

at number 573, 1993 upper deck darryl strawberry

at number 575, and 2002 upper deck victory dave roberts at number 576.

my favorite card on the page:

garvey, of course.

final thoughts:

it was painful to not put the '75 wynn in here, but that drysdale all-star card beats just about anything. i also really like the '93 upper deck strawberry, but there was no way steve garvey's '74 topps card was going to be replaced.  it's too bad that neither one of those cards were number 572, although there are a lot worse cards in the target set than the newk.

like that one.

frankendodger sheet 55 (cards 487-495) - nomar leads the slow clap...

here's sheet number 55 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 487-495:

and the back:

these cards are:

487. 1976 topps leron lee
488. 1983 donruss steve garvey
489. 1992 score gary carter
490. 1970 topps bill singer
491. 2010 topps rafael furcal
492. 2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra
493. 1987 topps tom lasorda
494. 1986 donruss len matuszek
495. 1959 topps johnny podres

the "no brainer" of the day:

i have no shame in adding as many steve garvey and nomar garciaparra cards as i want to this set, but i also have a penchant for players who have only one dodger card to their name.  as a result, i'd say that the 1976 topps leron lee was as close to a no brainer as this page has.

about the cards:

leron lee came to the dodgers during the 1975 season and earned this card in the 1976 topps set.  although lee stayed with the dodgers through 1976, he did not get any love from topps the following year.  maybe it was because after the dodgers released him in november of 1976, he went to japan and kicked some ass.  in his 11 seasons with lotte, he hit .320 with 283 home runs, which is 283 more home runs than he hit in his stint with the dodgers.

next up is steve garvey's 1983 donruss card. pulling this card from a pack was bittersweet for young gcrl as the garv was no longer with the dodgers when that happened.  gary carter wasn't with the dodgers either when his 1992 score card hit the streets.  i was still happy to have it, as it showed the canadian and american flags that he wore on his helmet. i thought that was a nice touch on his part.

bill singer's 1970 topps card here is a bit washed out. that was the season in which singer was coming off of a career year (he had won 20 games with a 2.34 era while throwing 315.2 innings in 1969), but missed all of may and september, and half of august. he still managed to no-hit the phillies in july, however.

rafael furcal is sporting a special holiday hat on his 2010 topps card.  it's the fourth of july hat from 2009 that the dodgers wore during their series with the padres in san diego. was that the first year of the special holiday hats? i am not a fan of the trend.

nomar is giving a slow clap on (one of) his 2007 upper deck card(s).  perhaps a fan has taken a stand against steamed dodger dogs and demanded that farmer john's eastern corn fed pork sausages be grilled as they were in the beginning.  in all seriousness, i believe that it was around 2007 when the dodgers stopped grilling the famous dodger dogs, and the fans revolted, resulting in both steamed and grilled being sold at the ballpark thereafter.

so it's two pages in a row with a tom lasorda card.  this 1987 card is a checklist, as was yesterday's, although this one is the dodgers team checklist. i mentioned in the post yesterday that i prefer my team checklists to have a team picture on the front, with perhaps a mention of the manager, but just the manager on the front is ok, too.  it beats not getting a manager card at all.

i'm not too excited about another len matuszek card in the set as i have run out of things to say about him. but, there aren't very many 1986 donruss cards here, so it is what it is.  johnny podres brings the page to its end with his 1959 topps card. podres made two starts in the '59 world series - earning the win in game 2 and getting a no-decision in the dodgers' game 6 series clinching win.

cards that didn't make the cut:

cards that i considered, but ultimately did not choose, include 2013 topps hanley ramirez

at number 487, 1971 topps jerry stephenson at number 488, 1988 topps dodgers leaders (pedro guerrero, fernando valenzuela) at number 489, 1991 topps kirk gibson at number 490, 1995 topps stadium club henry rodriguez at number 491, 1968 topps jeff torborg

at number 492, 1985 topps orel hershiser

at number 493, 1985 donruss ken landreaux at number 494, and 1981 topps dusty baker at number 495.

my favorite card on the page:

gary carter's 1992 score card is my favorite card of him as a dodger aside from his 1992 o-pee-chee tribute card.  i like it more than any other card on this page, including the garvey.

final thoughts:

i've come a long way with my steve garvey collection since pulling his cards out of donruss packs in the early 1980's.  i've not been doing a good job of keeping my collection up to date over at garvey cey russell lopes like i promised about a year ago.  i still plan to re-scan and update that post as i have picked up a number of new garvey cards in the past 12 months.  here's the latest - a 2009 topps tribute dual relic book that also features tony gwynn.

good golly miss molly, it's a fancy card.

frankendodger sheet 39 (cards 343-351) - with my favorite card...

here's sheet number 39 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 343-351:

and the back:

these cards are:

343. 1985 topps bill russell
344. 1991 leaf alfredo griffin
345. 2007 upper deck nomar garciaparra
346. 1967 topps jim hickman
347. 1978 topps terry forster
348. 1996 topps stadium club ismael valdes
349. 1986 o-pee-chee ken howell
350. 1978 topps steve garvey
351. 2016 topps chase utley

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card. duh.

about the cards:

i am still not a fan of the 1985 topps design, but there is nothing to be done about it.  bill russell gets listed as a shortstop by topps, and that's fair; however, he was playing less and less time there and more in the outfield.  in '85, russell played almost as much outfield as he did short, and somewhat surprisingly, topps listed him as "ss-of" on his 1986 card.  credit where credit is due.

i don't think i bought any packs of 1990 or 1991 or even 1992 leaf in real time. i did buy a lot of '93 leaf, though.  anyway, this alfredo griffin card most likely didn't enter my collection until the mid-2000's or later. griffin is/was one in a long line of shortstops to try to fill russell's cleats.  he was able to join russell as a world champion dodger shortstop, which is a fairly exclusive club.

nomar garciaparra, somewhat surprisingly, did not play shortstop for the dodgers at all until his third and final season with the club.  his 2006 season was better than could have reasonably been expected, which made the next two tougher to take.  i remember watching some of his last at bats with the dodgers during the 2008 playoffs and cringing a bit.  still, i wish there were more nomar as a dodger cards, and i am happy that upper deck made two cards per player in their 2007 set.

jim hickman was only with the dodgers in 1967 as a result of a trade with the mets that occurred on november 22, 1966, so i am thankful that topps had hickman in a later series and was able to show him as a dodger. he had much greater success later in his career with the cubs (his 1970 season was pretty darn good - 32 homers, 115 rbi, .305 average), but perhaps the highlight of his career occurred while wearing dodger blue.  hickman, an outfielder by trade, played a bit in the infield as well, but was called upon to pitch the last 2 innings of a game against the giants in june of 1967.  he faced just 7 batters and allowed 2 hits (one batter singled but was thrown out at second going for a double).  one of those hits was a home run by willie mays.  i think that would be a pretty good story for the grandchildren.

like hickman, terry forster was acquired by the dodgers on november 22.  that was in 1977, however, and was also early enough in the card production process for forster's photo to be airbrushed and have his team affiliation switched from the pirates to the dodgers despite the lack of multiple card series.  i am guessing that the checklist was already set, however, as i see it as an anomaly for topps to put two cards featuring players from the same team so close together in the set back then.  my point being that forster's card was supposed to be a pirate card.  as far as i can tell, the cutoff point for team changes was december 3, 1977.  that was the day that ron schueler signed with the white sox - the team that he is affiliated with in the 1978 topps set - and two days before bobby bonds was traded by the angels (with whom bonds is affiliated in the set) to the white sox.  thank goodness for o-pee-chee!

it would have been nice of topps to crop the photo on ismael valdes' 1996 stadium club card just a little bit differently so that it would appear that he was striding over the stadium club logo as if it were lava.  ken howell's 1986 o-pee-chee card is pretty much a non-event. it looks like the photographer is standing between howell and wherever it is howell would rather be.

for my money, the 1978 topps steve garvey card is the greatest card ever made.  not objectively, but subjectively anyway.  i think it is the perfect baseball card. to pull this card from a pack in 1978 while living in dodger territory was just about the best thing i could hope for as a seven year old collector.

finally, chase utley represents 2016 topps in the set. i was surprised utley was re-signed by the dodgers for 2016, but he's played fairly well.  sooner or later, however, the dodgers will need to get second base figured out for the long term. this was the first 2016 card to be added to the set, and was later joined by the walter o'malley card from panini seen earlier on. i think i will probably add another. we'll see.

cards that didn't make the cut:

a couple of these cards had no chance to make the set, but they were still options:  1994 topps finest pedro astacio at number 343, 1961 topps sandy koufax at number 344, 1977 topps reggie smith

at number 345, 1993 o-pee-chee mike sharperson at number 346, 1979 topps doug rau

at number 347, 1962 topps larry burright

at number 348, 2000 upper deck victory eric gagne at number 349, 2015 topps yasiel puig at number 350, and 1979 o-pee-chee bill north at number 351.

my favorite card on the page:

that would be the 1978 topps steve garvey card, which is also my favorite card of all time.

final thoughts:

i am not completely comfortable with two 1978 topps cards on the same page, but that is what i chose when putting this thing together.  i want terry forster in the set; the 1978 topps dodgers pretty much get preference over other cards in the set; and there was no way that garvey's card wasn't making it.  i blame topps for putting two dodgers so close together on the checklist - even if one of the cards was certainly a pirate card when the checklist was being developed.

frankendodger sheet 38 (cards 334-342) - first card, last card...

here's sheet number 38 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 334-342:

and the back:

these cards are:

334. 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee russell martin
335. 1998 pacific crown collection otis nixon
336. 2004 topps eric gagne
337. 1986 donruss terry whitfield
338. 1982 topps davey lopes
339. 2003 upper deck vintage daryle ward
340. 2001 topps davey johnson
341. 1971 topps steve garvey
342. 1993 topps stadium club billy ashley

the "no brainer" of the day:

i suppose steve garvey's rookie card was always going to be number 341 in the set, but davey johnson's managerial card was also a sure thing. still, tough to be more of a no brainer than the '71 topps garvey.

about the cards:

i am pretty sure that the 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee set was supposed to use the 1977 topps/opc design.  the previews that they put out that year used the same design as what you see on the martin card above, but were referred to on checklists as "1977 o-pee-chee previews".  the backs sure looked like 1977 backs,

and you can see by the martin card that upper deck changed the backs before issuing the actual set.

otis nixon's 1998 pacific crown collection is a nice card - day game at dodger stadium is always a good choice for a card photo - and it reminds me of a story i heard a couple of weeks ago.  nixon played for the twins at one point in his career, and one of the local baseball scribes noted that in one of his first appearances for the team, the public address announcer called him amos otis by mistake. ok - the twins played the royals quite a bit back during the 14 years that amos otis was in the american league.  however, the announcer corrected himself by saying "i'm sorry - now batting, amos nixon".

next up is a 2004 topps card marking eric gagne's consecutive saves streak a 'season highlight'. i used to get a bick kick out of seeing dodgers on league leader and record breaker/highlight cards (i felt like it was a long time between when i started collecting in 1978 and manny mota's 1980 record breaker card), but now it's not quite as exciting for some reason.

terry whitfield was a giant when i started collecting in '78, but i do have one of his non-dodger cards in my dodger sets.  he was a yankee on the same 1976 topps rookie card that featured henry cruz.  anyway, whitfield was released by the dodgers early in the 1986 season - not too long after i found this card in a pack as i recall.

dave lopes was traded by the dodgers following the 1981 season, so i know he was gone by the time i found his 1982 topps all-star card in a pack.  still, it's one of his two dodger cards in the set, and one of his last dodger cards, period.  i did like steve sax, but i didn't like that he replaced dave lopes.  no cards of coaches over the last few seasons means that we likely lost the last opportunity for a current dodger card of lopes.  he's now the first base coach for his former dodger teammate dusty baker in washington dc.

daryle ward shows up on a card from upper deck's 2003 vintage release.  this was the second series or something, and didn't use the 1965 design that got me collecting the set in the first place.  i was confused when i saw these cards, to be honest.  i thought that maybe topps put a kabosh on the use of their designs, but then in 2008, upper deck had those 1969 style inserts and so i was really interested and then confused by the 2009 1977 previews.  i didn't think much about ward because he didn't do much as a dodger.

i was happy to see manager cards back in topps sets in 2001, especially since the dodgers had a new manager since the last time topps made cards for the skippers.  they had gone through a couple, in fact.  johnson was replaced by jim tracy following a 2nd place finish in the nl west in 2000, but at least we have this card to remember him by.

we saw one of the last dodger cards of an infielder earlier, and now we have the first of another.  steve garvey's 1971 topps rookie card was a jewel of my early collection.  it was pretty tough to find growing up in southern california, especially in my price range.  it is weird still to see him with a fielder's glove as opposed to a first baseman's mitt, and that black batting glove is so chic.

finally we have a 1993 stadium club card of billy ashley.  i honestly thought this was an eric karros card when i started writing this post.  it's a reasonable mistake, however, as ashley has the same sort of running hunch that karros displayed.

cards that didn't make the cut:

it was going to be tough to displace many of these cards no matter what other options existed, but some of the cards that weren't chosen include 1982 o-pee-chee fernando valenzuela at number 334, 2002 upper deck dave hansen at number 335, 1994 upper deck jim gott

at number 336, 1984 donruss joe beckwith at number 337, 1990 upper deck alfredo griffin

at number 338, 1994 pinnacle roger mcdowell at number 339, 1989 topps kirk gibson at number 340, 1970 topps bill sudakis

at number 341, and 2002 upper deck victory cesar izturis at number 342.

my favorite card on the page:

i really do like that topps captured the fist move that gagne demonstrated after each save, but there's no way that my favorite card on the page isn't going to be steve garvey's rookie card.

final thoughts:

i saw gagne pitch in person in 2002 and 2004, but not in 2003 at the height of "game over". in 2004, i was at a game at fenway where he was brought into a game in a non-save situation and struck out the side in order (david ortiz took strike 3 to end the game). not quite the same electricity that was to be experienced at dodger stadium, to be sure.  anyway, kenley jansen just passed gagne on the franchise's all-time saves leader board.  it's no surprise as the closer position has become so specialized, but for a long time, jim brewer was at the top of that list.  he was ultimately passed by todd worrell, who was passed by his replacement jeff shaw, who was passed by his replacement in eric gagne.

frankendodger sheet 33 (cards 289-297) - with the card i most recently replaced...

here's sheet number 33 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 289-297:

and the back:

these cards are:

289. 1974 topps rick auerbach
290. 1980 topps steve garvey
291. 1985 topps bob welch
292. 2000 skybox dominion eric gagne/jeff williams
293. 2003 topps franklin gutierrez
294. 1975 topps geoff zahn
295. 1963 topps ed roebuck
296. 1985 donruss mike marshall
297. 2014 topps update zack greinke

the "no brainer" of the day:

it was the last card added to the sheet, but in hindsight it should have been the first.  that would be the 2003 topps franklin gutierrez card. i'll explain below.

about the cards:

when i started writing this post, this is what the sheet looked like:

at first, shane victorino's 2012 topps update card made the cut at 293, but i wasn't happy about it. victorino is on my short list of players that aren't my favorite.  not completely sure why, although he played well against the dodgers in the 2008 and 2009 nlcs.  at any rate, i was pleased to find a double of the gutierrez card among my 2003 dupes, and it was an easy decision to replace victorino in the center rectangle of the page.  the other cards remain unscathed.

rick auerbach came over from the brewers near the start of the 1973 season, but didn't suit up for the dodgers until 1974. it's a surprise that he got a card in the '74 set, but i'll take it.  auerbach hit .342 in 45 games for the dodgers in their pennant winning season, and then filled in for the injured bill russell for much of the 1975 campaign.  the 1980 topps design is a bit similar to that of 1974, and steve garvey's card has the added bonus of the all-star banner.  not my favorite garvey card, but we do get a look at his forearms front and center.

1985 topps may be my least favorite design of the decade.  at least for dodger cards.  look at bob welch's card - it's too cluttered and clunky at the bottom.  the fact that topps used the flying ball logo means that the card says 'dodgers dodgers' which is unnecessary.  plus, the position designation looks like it was shoehorned in.  not that the 2000 skybox dominion design is better as the names on the front of the card are difficult to read.  anyway, the card features two foreigners - eric gagne was born in montreal, and jeff williams was born in australia.  both debuted for the dodgers in september of 1999, but gagne outlasted williams who pitched in his final game during the 2002 season.

franklin gutierrez, another foreigner (venezuela), never did suit up for the dodgers during the regular season. he was traded in 2004 to the indians for milton bradley.  gutierrez was later traded to the mariners with whom he won a gold glove in 2007 and for whom he still plays today.

geoff zahn's 1975 topps card is pleasing to me not only because of the dodger stadium field level scoreboard that is visible behind him, but also because it reminds me that zahn was traded to the cubs early in the 1975 season for burt hooton.  nothing against zahn, but hooton was a big part of the team of my youth.  ed roebuck was a pretty solid reliever over 11 years in the majors. he pitched for the dodgers in the 1955 and 1956 world series, but missed out on the 1959 season and world series.  roebuck was coming off of a 10-2 season in 1962 when this card was released, but he was dealt to the senators during the '63 season for marv breeding who the dodgers kept off of their postseason roster en route to a sweep of the yankees in that year's fall classic.

we've seen 1985 leaf in the set already, but not 1985 donruss, so here's mike marshall.  i was still looking for superstardom from marshall at this point, and he had a good season in '85 with 28 homers, 95 rbi, and a .293 batting average, but his season was overshadowed by pedro guerrero's.  marshall also challenged the dodger single season strikeout record that year, but fell 12 short of billy grabarkewitz's then record of 149.  of course, marshall had about 75 fewer plate appearances.

the last card on the sheet is zack greinke's 2014 topps update all-star card.  that game was played at target field, and the hats the players wore were supposed to be a nod to the twinkies' batting helmets of the late 1970's.

the tradition continued in cincinnati last year,

and this year, the players will wear some sort of san diego padre abomination

(at least during the workout and hr derby).

cards that didn't make the cut:

along with victorino's card at number 293, some others that didn't receive the call include 1996 donruss chad fonville at number 289, 1979 topps davey lopes at number 290, 1986 topps tom lasorda

at number 291, 1960 topps dodger backstops (joe pignatano/john roseboro) at number 292, 1994 pinnacle darryl strawberry at number 294, 2013 topps brandon league at number 295, 1984 donruss greg brock

at number 296, and 2011 topps heritage jonathan broxton at number 297.

my favorite card on the page:

the 1975 topps geoff zahn card wins out over the others thanks to its dodger stadium background and red and blue border.

final thoughts:

victorino also had a dodger card in 2003 just like the guy who replaced him on this sheet, but, like gutierrez, victorino didn't appear for the dodgers at that time.

frankendodger sheet 24 (cards 208-216) - maintaining garvey's streak...

here's sheet number 24 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 208-216:

and the back:

these cards are:

208. 2002 topps marquis grissom
209. 2007 topps jonathan broxton
210. 1983 donruss bill russell
211. 2015 topps archives kenley jansen
212. 2002 donruss originals don drysdale
213. 1973 topps steve garvey
214. 2010 topps matt kemp
215. 1984 donruss pat zachry
216. 1991 topps archives ultimate 1953 jim hughes

the "no brainer" of the day:

as much as i like the 2010 topps kemp card, i knew from the get-go that the drysdale card was going to be in this set.

about the cards:

another day, another garvey card. and, a second straight day seeing matt kemp, too.  plus, only two card manufacturers represented.  i haven't really been tracking that, but i'm pretty sure that we haven't had a sheet yet that consists of only one manufacturer.  anyway, marquis grissom leads off the sheet with 2002 topps and those gold borders. i doubt we will see gold borders on a base set ever again thanks to the rise of the gold parallel - even though topps made gold parallels of these gold bordered base cards.  black borders are always an option, and topps went back to them in 2007 as seen on the broxton card. that was the year i returned to my set making ways (i had been buying factory sets plus two boxes of flagship from 1994 until then), but then topps issued a factory set with five new dodger cards and i bought a factory set after all.

bill russell's 1983 donruss card is not my favorite russell card from that year (the fleer card is also in this set - on the next sheet, in fact), and it's too bad his 1983 topps card isn't number 210 because then it would precede kenley jansen's 2015 archives card that uses the 1983 topps design.  that's ok, because we have two cards with the 1984 donruss design on the sheet, starting with don drysdale's 2002 donruss originals card. beginning with some of the sets of the late 90's (fleer si greats, upper deck century legends), i was all-in for sets that featured former players.  especially sets like topps archives and all-time fan favorites and donruss originals that used older card designs for those players.  however, my favorite part of the originals release was the "what if?" cards that showed players on donruss designs that might have existed if they were making cards from 1978 to 1980.  unfortunately for me, only duke snider was included among those cards, and that was only thanks to his 1980 hall of fame induction.  no garvey for me!

garvey does show up (on the fourth sheet in a row) with his 1973 topps card.  i've written about this card before - how, with wes parker showing up, it is a 'passing the torch' kind of card like the tony perez/eric davis card from 1986 topps.  kemp's 2010 topps card is reminiscent of ken griffey jr's great 1994 upper deck card,

although the card design kind of takes away (just a little bit) from the greatness of the kemp card.

pat zachry fills the frame of his 1984 donruss card (notice there's a bit more purple in the dodger design than donruss used in 2002), and he's got the 25th los angeles dodger anniversary patch well displayed. finishing off the sheet is a card featuring a player (jim hughes) from when the dodgers were still in brooklyn, and thanks to the 1991 topps archives set we get to see the 1953 topps design in the frankenset.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i originally had a 2009 upper deck goodwin champions don newcombe card

slotted in at number 208, but then i realized that it is a short print and i didn't have a double of that card. meanwhile, i had about 10 extra grissom cards. c'est la vie.  other cards falling short for one reason or another include 1993 donruss mike piazza (rated rookie!) at number 209, 1963 topps sandy koufax (as if i had a double of that card, too) at number 210, 2009 upper deck greg maddux

at number 211, 1960 topps walt alston at number 212, 1982 topps dave stewart

at number 213, 1991 fleer eddie murray at number 214, 2012 topps archives brett butler (another short print) at number 215, and 1969 topps don sutton at number 216.

my favorite card on the page:

it's no griffey, but i do like that kemp card.

final thoughts:

seeing the jim hughes reprint here got me thinking about the topps sets (1952-1956) that featured cards too big to fit into the 9-page sheets.  i know i have cards featuring reprints or cards that never were from the 1952, 1953, and 1954 sets, but i am not sure off hand if there are 1955 and/or 1956 cards in here.  i know i considered some from the 1995 topps archives brooklyn dodgers set, but not sure if any made the final cut. i hope that some did...

frankendodger sheet 23 (cards 199-207) - all decades reporting for duty...

here's sheet number 23 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 199-207:

and the back:

these cards are:

199. 1977 o-pee-chee ron cey
200. 1964 topps sandy koufax
201. 1982 donruss steve yeager
202. 2014 topps chrome matt kemp
203. 1990 donruss jay howell
204. 2001 topps archives tom lasorda
205. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams steve garvey
206. 1959 topps carl furillo
207. 1971 topps alan foster

the "no brainer" of the day:

that would be the 2001 archives lasorda card.  his 1988 topps card is one of my top 3 favorite lasorda cards (along with 1992 topps and 1978 topps), but it didn't make the cut earlier in the set.  so, the archives card that reprints the '88 card was a no brainer once the no repeat players/sets guideline expired.

about the cards:

i'm pretty sure that this is the first sheet that includes cards from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's, and 10's.  and they are all pretty good, too.  leading off with ron cey's 1977 opc card, and following that up with sandy koufax's 1964 topps card? that's a great start.  i thought that the hero numbers should be well represented in this set, and although clayton kershaw's 2013 topps heritage card was also number 200, i decided to go with the original, so to speak. so, i purchased a second '64 koufax for my collection.  and, while i may go back and replace matt kemp at number 100 with hubie brooks (i've got that bowman card in my sportlots cart as i type), sandy won't be going anywhere.

i could have used either a 1982 donruss or 1983 donruss yeager card

at 201, and i went for yeager at the plate rather than yeager behind it.  the photo is similar to the one on cey's card - so much so that i wonder if the top of the dugout was painted sometime between 1976 and 1981, so that both photos were taken in the same (shea?) stadium.  matt kemp's 2014 topps chrome card features a nice photo with the red number prominently displayed, but it's jay howell's 1990 donruss card that really makes the red pop.

i already mentioned that i like tommy's card, so i'll move on to the garvey from the timeless teams set.  i am a fan of this set to be sure, and this is one of my favorite cards in it because upper deck matched the photo with the year, which is nice.  from one number 6 to another, and from dodger stadium to the la coliseum, we have carl furillo's 1959 topps card. i've seen a few football games at the coliseum, but did not make it to the exhibition game the dodgers played there a few years ago.  i do recall sitting there during the football games trying to imagine it as a baseball stadium and couldn't really figure it out even though i had seen photos of the conversion.  anyway, the rams will be playing there for a couple of years, and i kind of hope the stadium falls apart on them.  this coming from a guy who was a big fan of the rams until they traded vince ferragamo to the bills in '85.  i thought georgia frontiere was a bad owner. that kroenke guy seems like a real jackass.

apologies to alan foster for bringing up kroenke just before getting to his card.  one thing about foster that i find interesting is that he wore number 44 - a number usually identified with sluggers like hank aaron, willie mccovey, and post-oakland reggie jackson.  speaking of sluggers, foster served up the first pitch that willie stargell hit out of dodger stadium (stargell did it twice), although pops wore number 8.

cards that didn't make the cut:

i considered but did not choose a number of cards for this sheet, including 2002 topps 206 paul loduca at number 199, 2013 topps heritage clayton kershaw at number 200, the aforementioned 1983 donruss steve yeager at number 201, 1979 o-pee-chee gary thomasson

at number 202, 1983 fleer greg brock at number 203, 1970 topps len gabrielson at number 204, 2003 topps traded adam riggs

at number 205, 1983 fleer steve garvey

(proving that garvey cards don't always win) at number 206, and 1986 topps fernando valenzuela record breaker at number 207.

my favorite card on the page:

there are a lot of contenders here, but a 1964 topps sandy koufax card - more for the stature than the aesthetic - should and does win out.

final thoughts:

back to the uniform number thing - foster was traded to cleveland after the 1970 season, and he took number 32 (now that is a pitcher's number) with the tribe. the dodgers acquired al downing that same offseason, and he (another pitcher) took foster's 44.  about three years later, downing gave up aaron's 715th career home run - from one 44 to another...