See Other Side for More Fun

In building my Frankenset, I made a rule fairly early on: the card had to qualify based on the front of the card alone. I wanted it to be apparent looking at the front of each card why it belonged in the set. I always thought this was a good decision, but wondered about those pesky card backs. Because there are some good ones out there. Where do they fit into the Frankenset world I have created? There must be a place for them somewhere.

Then it hit me. It happened a few weeks ago when I was looking at the gallery view on an early 90s Upper Deck set on TCDB. I was searching for card numbers that might fit my Frankenset, so I went to the gallery view to get a good look at the front of the cards. But right next to the front of the card is an image of the back. I noticed some really interesting ones and planned to go through some of my own that I already had to see what I could find. And what did I find? Plenty of material for ANOTHER Frankenset. A Frankenset just focused on the backs of the cards.

Now with two young children at home, I don't have much time for anything much less tracking and hunting down cards for another Frankenset, so I'm going to start slow. Here, I am going to feature some of the cards that inspired me to go down this path, in addition to some others I have found so far. Some of the cards fit the existing categories in my main Frankenset, but with card backs, you have more written material to work with, so there will be some new avenues to explore, which is exciting.

Two cards right off the bat that I really enjoyed were this Mickey Hatcher card and this Luis Polonia card where he is being harassed by, I am assuming, Lance Parrish's son. 

1991 Upper Deck #666, Mickey Hatcher

1992 Upper Deck #147, Luis Polonia

These are both fantastic. If you didn't catch it, Hatcher is experiencing a hot foot. The front of the Hatcher card also made it qualify for my regular Frankenset. Luckily I have two copies.

Another category I found was cards describing players in much too-glowing ways. I found this example fairly absurd:

2001 Topps #183, David Segui

Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Frank Thomas, Albert Pujols, David Segui. Umm...no. 

Then there was the flipside. Cards basically bashing the player's abilities in one way or another. 

1991 Score #153, Mickey Hatcher

There's Hatcher again. Ol' gray haired, bad kneed Mickey. At least some compliments followed.

Another fun one was Dave LaPoint ripping himself with a classic line.

1990 Score #357, Dave LaPoint

A body made for bowling. I can relate. 

A final category that I enjoy is random facts on the backs of cards.

1992 Topps #18, Greg Cadaret

Greg Cadaret enjoys Huey Lewis? Who doesn't?!

Another random fact comes from the 1991 Topps card of Mickey Tettleton, who I found out was nicknamed "Froot Loops" in researching a previous post. Now I know why.

1991 Topps #385, Mickey Tettleton

I'm looking forward to finding more of these diamonds in the rough, but it might take a while to put together a full set. I have probably about 200 so far, and don't have that many more cards to look through here at home. But like I said, I don't have time to work on it anyway!