frankendodger sheet 75 (cards 667-675) - johnnie b. is good...

here's sheet number 75 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 667-675:

and the back:

these cards are:

667. 1989 upper deck orel hershiser
668. 1978 topps dusty baker
669. 1989 topps dodgers leaders
670. 2002 upper deck brian jordan
671. 1979 topps joe ferguson
672. 2003 topps james loney
673. 2006 upper deck olmedo saenz
674. 1982 topps dave goltz
675. 1990 upper deck ramon martinez

the "no brainer" of the day:

the 1978 topps dusty baker was always going to be in this set.

about the cards:

orel hershiser leads off with one of his 'extra' cards from the 1989 upper deck set. this one is all about orel winning the world series mvp.  he threw a 3-hit shutout in game 2, and then pitched another complete game, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, in the game 5 clincher.

dusty baker's 1978 topps card makes me smile. it's not that johnnie b's smile is that infectious, it's just that this card stood out to me as a young collector for not featuring a posed photo, but rather a picture of a guy looking into the stands and smiling. i was confused at first because the photo is not from dodger stadium, and why on earth would a dodger be smiling while looking into the stands at candlestick park (there's a guy wearing a giants cap behind dusty), but then i figured out that carmichael, california (baker's home according to the back of the card) was near sacramento and he probably saw someone he knew in the stands. either that or someone was holding a funny sign.

the 1989 topps dodgers leaders card was the last of its kind for a while.  the team focused card had evolved from the team photo in the early 1980's to the team's statistical leaders before going awol in 1985.  topps brought it back in 1986 honoring the team's longest tenured player in 1986, and then went  to random multi-player/coach photos from 1987-1989 before having it go away altogether after that. topps eventually brought the team photo card back in 2001.  on this '89 card, we get mike scioscia, orel hershiser, and steve sax together with (i assume) alfredo griffin listening to ron perranoski (again, i assume) wax poetic about things pathetic tell orel to "smoke 'em inside" as any good pitching coach would do.  i think topps could have done better with this card, as pretty much the whole dodger team was around home plate on october 15, 1988, and that scene would have made for a better card than this.  i am guessing production schedules got in the way, as the cards were starting to come out pretty early in the late '80's and early '90's as i recall.

brian jordan's 2002 upper deck card is aesthetically pleasing to me, not because of the forgettable card design, but because of the strata of dirt, grass, fence, and foliage. it's like a layer cake of colorful goodness.

the next card is joe ferguson's 1979 topps card.  joe ferguson was, to me, kind of the odd man out on the 1978 dodgers. he rejoined the team in july of 1978 which was too late for me to consider him a true member of the team of my youth, even though i knew from studying the back of my 1978 topps ferguson card (on which he was an astro) that he had  started his career with the dodgers, and had been on the team as recently as 1976.  steve yeager was the catcher, period, and even though ferguson caught a fair number of games in 1978 and again in 1979, yeager was still my guy.  and, when ferguson played the outfield (mostly right field for the injured reggie smith), it was not enough for me to insert him into 'my' lineup that always featured smith in right.  still, i was disappointed when the dodgers released ferguson late in the 1981 season, and glad that the angels picked him up.

james loney's 2003 topps card was one of those draft pick/prospect cards that you often see and forget about.  i, on the other hand, decided to keep track of loney's progress due to the fact that the dodgers had brought in fred mcgriff to play first and i was wondering when the inevitable turnstile would stop.  loney made the bigs in 2006 (after mcgriff, shawn green, hee seop choi, and nomar garciaparra had manned first base) and stuck in 2007.  my favorite loney moment was his grand slam against the cubs in the 2008 nlds, and he has gone on to have a pretty good career.  he's with the mets now, and i don't think he will get to the postseason this year, but if he were to make it, i'd bet on him and his .354 lifetime postseason average to make some noise.

remember olmedo saenz? the killer tomato?  he also played a fair amount of first base during the jim tracy years, along with jason phillips as i recall.  saenz was largely shut out of card sets during his time with the dodgers, but the almost too large 2006 upper deck set didn't leave him out, and for that, i am grateful.

dave goltz makes another appearance with his 1982 topps card. this set has long been referred to as the hockey stick set, and i saw someone on one of the blogs (it was a comment at baseballcardbreakdown) refer to the recently debuted 2017 topps card design as having a hockey or goalie stick feel as well.

i can see that. and there is even a team logo puck on the card, too.

last card on the sheet is a 1990 upper deck ramon martinez card, with pedro's big brother ready to do some hitting!  sometimes, that turns out ok, too!

i really want to believe that the photo on the 1993 upper deck martinez card comes from his 1991 home run (the only one of his career) off of tom glavine.  it seems to work - it was a day game in late september, and brett butler was on deck when ramon hit his solo shot.  plus, i don't think ramon would be that happy if he had only scored a run. if it is indeed from that game, the dodgers' win that day put them up by a game and a half over glavine and the braves with 11 games to play.  of course, that was yet another year when the giants killed the dodgers' playoff hopes, this time by winning two out of three of the season ending series, leaving the blue one game behind the eventual national league champion braves.

cards that didn't make the cut:

2006 upper deck dioner navarro

at number 667, 1979 topps bill north (like ferguson, another guy who played a lot for the dodgers in 1978 but didn't replace rick monday in 'my' dodger lineup)

at number 668, 1990 topps tommy lasorda at number 669, 2006 upper deck kenny lofton

at number 670, 1992 bowman eric davis at number 671, 2006 upper deck nomar garciaparra at number 672, 2003 topps total paul loduca at number 673, 1993 bowman mike james at number 674, and 2006 upper deck ramon martinez (the other ramon martinez) at number 675.

my favorite card on the page:

even with some guy in a giants hat behind him, dusty baker's 1978 topps card is my favorite card on this sheet.

final thoughts:

eagle-eyed readers might notice that this set has back-to-back cards from 1989 upper deck - kirk gibson's card at 666 that we saw yesterday and orel's card at 667 up above.  i went with this rather than put the navarro card on this sheet as that would mean two 2006 upper deck cards here.  not that two cards from the same set on the same sheet is a deal breaker, but going back-to-back with '89 upper deck was more appealing due to the fact that the cards land on different sheets.  besides, showing cards from 1989 that deal with the dodgers' 1988 world championship means never having to say you're sorry.

spoiler alert - there is a sheet coming up with back-to-back cards from the same set. unless 2016 topps heritage high numbers can come to the rescue!

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 5 (cards 37-45) - only one belongs at 42

here's sheet number 5 of my dodger frankenset - cards numbered 37-45:

 and the back:

these cards are:

37. 2009 topps allen & ginter's andre ethier
38. 1985 leaf orel hershiser
39. 1985 topps woolworths maury wills
40. 1984 topps dusty baker
41. 1978 topps burt hooton
42. 1997 topps jackie robinson
43. 1974 topps traded jim wynn
44. 1979 fritsch one year wonders roy gleason
45. 2003 topps 205 brian jordan

the "no brainer" of the day:

today's no brainer is the roy gleason card.  it's one of very few cards that the former dodger and army sergeant has had.  gleason appeared in a recent tristar obak set, but without the logos that are so visible on the fritsch card.  i still sponsor gleason's baseball reference page, and i would encourage you to learn about his story.

about the cards:

the hershiser card is one of his rookies, and it is the first card in this set that will be repeated later on.  that is to say, the 1985 donruss card of hershiser, which is identical to this one except for the leaf logo, will show up in a future post.

also showing up on this page are the left fielder of the team of my youth (dusty baker), as well as the first representative of the 1978 topps dodgers, burt hooton.  and there is, of course, jackie robinson at card number 42.  1997 was the first year that there wasn't a number 7 in the topps set. they had included a mickey mantle tribute type card in the 1996 set, and jackie received a similar card the following year, which was the 50th anniversary of his debut.  baseball retired number 42 that year, and i don't know if that decision had already been made when topps put together the checklist for the 1997 flagship set. it's a nice touch to put jackie there either way.

the brian jordan card is there by default due to the restrictions i put on the first 20 pages. it's probably my least favorite card in the set so far.

cards that didn't make the cut:

some of the cards that were considered but cut due to either the lack of a double or the aforementioned rules and regulations i established for the first 20 pages of the frankenset include: 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts kirby higbe (#37), 1989 swell baseball greats jose morales (#38), 2009 upper deck goudey 4-in-1 matt kemp, rafael furcal, andre ethier, russell martin (#39), 1963 fleer tommy davis (#40), 1979 tcma the 1950's duke snider, gil hodges, roy campanella, carl furillo (#43), and 2005 topps all-time fan favorites dusty baker (#44).  i considered that baker card until i found the gleason - i had to buy two copies of the gleason to get it into this set, one of the few times i did that to get a specific card included as part of the frankenset.

my favorite card on the page:

there are lots of cards here that i like (8 of them, to be exact), but i'll anoint the gleason card (over the 1978 topps hooton) as my favorite.

final thoughts:

before anyone makes an issue of it, i will say that i put this set together ignoring the 't' in traded sets or the 'uh' in the latter-day update & highlights sets and the like.  it's the card number that matters, and i was happy to include the toy cannon and his 1974 topps traded card on this sheet.