The Exes

I am about halfway through digging through the 4,000 card purchase that I made.  The seller told me that the box had around 4,000 cards in it.  As I sift through the cardboard heaven, I am noticing that he may have underestimated the true number count.  I have already filled up a 3,200 count box and still have thousands of card to sort out.  Getting more cards than expected from a seller is always a good thing.  Especially since most of the sets included are from the early to mid 2000s.  Those years were a dead zone as far as my personal card collecting experience goes.

As you can see, a major dent has been placed in this box.  You can check out the first post that I made about this mystery box to see how fully stocked it once was.  I am going to be very sad when this box is empty and I need to go back to purchasing hobby packs with 8 cards per a pack.

This experience has been similar to flipping through a dime box and exploring the randomness that is contained.  I have found many good cards for my collection as well as some gems for my fellow bloggers.

I collect some ex-Doyers if I enjoyed the way they played in LA.  I also like to collect ex-Doyer cards if the cards feature a funny photo or cool action shot.

I know Tony Gwynn Jr. is technically not an ex-Doyer.  Gwynn is languishing in Triple-A right now and is not on the 40 man roster.  The chances of him making it back to LA are pretty slim.  The 2013 Dodgers have dealt with a slew of injuries and Gwynn doesn't even get his name mentioned as an option to be called up.

In my mind, Gwynn is not only an ex-Doyer but, probably a player formerly known as a big league ballplayer.  Anyway, this is still a great play at the plate shot of Gwynn diving head first into home plate.  This card will slide in nicely into a binder page and will be admired during that rare chance when I am flipping through my San Diego Padre pages.

I have never seen the 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection set before.  This is a very classy looking set that contains some solid photography.  I also enjoy collecting cards of ex-Doyer, Milton Bradley.  Bradley had a lot of potential to be a great ballplayer but, never lived up to that promise due to his anger problems, injuries and off the field trouble.  His career will be known as just decent.

Bradley's off the field issues didn't stop after he left baseball.  Just last month he was convicted of abusing his wife and could face up to seven and a half years in prison.  The case brought out this bit of information that could be filed under Michael Lohan parenting.  Bradley's wife had told her husband, Milton, to stop smoking marijuana in front of their children.  Bradley disagreed and began choking his wife.  This whole story is somewhat sad that Bradley still doesn't have his life in order.

Another fun action shot of an ex-Doyer features speedster, Roger Cedeno.  Cedeno came up through the Dodger minor league system before bouncing around the league from team to team.  He enjoyed a decent career and was able to amass over 200 steals.  Cedeno also had a pretty good postseason with the New York Mets in 1999.

The part of this card that I enjoy the most is that is a play at the plate with the pitcher covering the plate.  The pitcher must have thrown a wild pitch that got by the catcher and now the catcher is scrambling to the backstop to try and throw Cedeno out.  We can assume that Cedeno is safe because he has already started his slide and the ball has not made its way into the photograph yet.

The Platter calls Cedeno safe and that is the final word.

Back to a little bit more digging through the mystery bow before the first game of the Dodgers doubleheader with the New York Yankees.