The Moment You've Been Waiting For: The Frankenset Recap (Page 72: Cards 641 to 649)

A couple of weeks ago, I revealed that my Frankenset was complete. I thought it would be fun to share the set page by page on this blog, and also provide some random commentary along with each page. I'll also occasionally share miscellaneous information about the set in its entirety. So here's your first one of those, a list of the top 10 categories featured most often in the set (half points if more than one category was represented on the card). 

The random number generator chose page 72 to kick things off, cards 641 to 649. Enjoy! 

1991 Score #641, Dave Anderson

Swing and a miss. How embarrassing.

1991 Upper Deck #642, Kent Mercker

Wonder if this fan got Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Avery, too?

1984 Topps #643, Mike Brown

It's all about the shades.

1986 Topps #644, Mark Gubicza

GUBICZA looks like something you'd see on an eye chart. So maybe it's fitting this card is so blurry.

1991 Upper Deck #645, Alex Fernandez

This card is all about Ozzie Guillen's two hats. And the fact that the backwards one says "You Can't Touch This." 1990 was prime Hammer Time after all.

1979 Topps #646, Rick Sweet

Sweet mustache.

1992 Donruss #647, Jim Campanis Jr.

Jim Jr. never made the majors. His dad reached MLB, but didn't make much of a splash there. The most famous family member was grandfather Al, who only played 7 MLB games, but was the longtime General Manager of the Dodgers. 

2002 Upper Deck #648, Tino Martinez

Tino had two somewhat productive years in St. Louis, but his time with the Yankees and Mariners is more notable. 

1989 Donruss #649, Rod Nichols

Maybe Rod needed better glasses. He went 1-7 in 1988 with a 5.06 ERA. He somehow had three complete games, however.

Do you have a favorite from this page? I'm torn between the Rick Sweet mustache and the Ozzie MC Hammer hat. 

Thanks for reading!

Chico, Tino, Torey, and Ty: Donruss Names Series Part 4

Back for another installment of the Donruss Names Series. This series takes advantage of the fact that Donruss printed the player's full name on the back of their cards from 1981 to 1992. So far, this is what we've seen:

Part 1: Famous players who went by their middle name
Part 2: Players who you thought had a nickname, but their nickname was their real name
Part 3: Players with unique first names

Part 4 is another set of players with unique first names. There are some surprises here from a few all-star caliber players, along with some names I've never heard of before or since. Again, we'll proceed in what I arbitrarily deem to be reverse uniqueness order.

7) Torey Lovullo

1989 Donruss The Rookies #17 Torey Lovullo

The current manager of the Diamondbacks goes by a derivation of his first name, but instead of Sal, he opted for Torey.

6) Tino Martinez

1992 Donruss #410, Tino Martinez

His given name just doesn't have the same ring to it as Tino Martinez. 

5) Danny Tartabull

1990 Donruss #322, Danny Tartabull

There's currently a Brazilian soccer player named Danilo apparently who might be really popular. I'm not sure as soccer does not hold my interest. Danilo Gallinari is a solid NBA player from Italy. Danny Tartabull's parents are of Cuban heritage. His father, Jose, played 9 seasons in MLB.

4) Al Leiter

1990 Donruss #543, Al Leiter

The most famous Alois was probably Hitler's dad. With that in mind, Al was a very good choice. I might have even gone with Lois before Alois.  

3) Toby Harrah

1986 Donruss #159, Toby Harrah

When I typed in Colbert first name on Google to try to find the most famous Colbert, I just got a bunch of results for Stephen Colbert so I gave up. So let's call Toby Harrah the most famous Colbert.

2) Chico Walker

1992 Donruss #439, Chico Walker

Cleotha Staples, a female soul and gospel singer, is probably the most famous Cleotha. Chico was a good choice for Mr. Walker.

1) Ty Gainey

1986 Donruss #31, Ty Gainey

Tyler? Tyrus? Tyrone? Nope.

I couldn't find anyone else named Telmanch. Anyone. In fact, searching for that name brings up pretty much exclusively results of Ty Gainey, with the exception of what looked like a German site for one of the results. I typed in Telmanch in the German to English translator and struck out there, so this first name wins the uniqueness title in my book.