Top Ten Best From The Fun Box Part 1

I got off work earlier this morning and was received by a warm and cheery summer day.  That put me in a good mood.  Clocking out of work always puts a smile on my face anyway, but added perfect weather adds to the glee.  This post should put my faithful readers in a grand mood as well.

I have concluded my dig through the 4,000 count mystery box of baseball cards.  This has been an ongoing thrilling extravaganza since last weekend.  You may want to check out my post from when the journey began if you were one of the few that had missed out on it.  I had around 200 cards that I am going to keep for my personal collection.  The rest of the cards will be used in trades and the others will be placed in 3200 count boxes to be sold the next time I do a card show this fall.  I plan on having a massive table of dime boxes to be sold by October.

I flipped through the keepers from this fun box once more to compile my 10 favorites.  This was tough to do because there were so many great set designs and photographs.  Another aspect that made this situation difficult was that the box contained very few Dodgers.  This would have been a bigger disappointment but, the box had an abundance of other cards that will fit into my binders nicely.

Let us get this first part of the countdown underway!

#10

2004 Upper Deck Kenny Lofton #400

The 2004 Upper Deck set had a very strong showing as I rummaged through the mixture of cardboard.  The design is superb and the photography is golden.  The lucky collector that peruses my dime boxes in the fall will have a really cool time finding many of the '04 Upper Deck cards that weren't needed for my collection.

This card depicts an action shot that a story can be told by the viewer.  Lofton and the Yankees third base coach appear to both be looking in the same direction as Lofton is rounding third.  A close play may be going on towards second base or Lofton is peering over at a cutoff man about to throw him out.

But, that throw never did through the jet quick Lofton out at home plate.  Lofton was a speedster that only got thrown out at the plate once and that was because he inexplicably answered his ringing cell phone halfway between third and home.

Also, does anyone have any idea why there is a hoard of gigantic cameras leering out in the background?  That seems to be a lot of big cameras that must have been operated by tiny cameraman because they seem invisible. 

#9

2004 Topps Total Jerry Hairston Jr. #482

Hairston is one of the current Dodgers several scrappy utility type players that do everything adequately but not spectacularly.  Hairston was a youngster back in '04 and wore cool shades.  The shades and the amount of focus that Hairston has on catching that baseball.  He is totally mesmerized by the spinning seams.

I hope Hairston was quick enough to notice the likely oncoming base runner.  This photo was probably taken in '03.  Any number of body building juicers could have been steamrolling down the base path.  Luckily, Hairston did survive this possible calamity in order to live long enough to play for the dismal 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers.

      

#8

2009 Topps Update Josh Reddick #27

I try to add a couple points to my cool card grading scale when it involves an awesome looking photo.  A pro ballplayer getting a rookie card that which will have a long lasting appeal in the blog world, which isn't about the money, is quite an accomplishment.  

This is a cleaner cut Josh Reddick.  He still looks like a bad ass as a rookie and looks like he can crush a skull and a home run.  

Reddick's rookie card stood out to me from the thousands of cards that I glanced at.  This is one of the better rookie cards that I have seen in awhile.  This is also my first viewing of this card as I do not normally collect Red Sox or was I ripping packs of '09 Update back in the day.

I wonder how well this rookie card would have done during Nick's Dime Box Tourney on his blog.  The Reddick may have lasted a couple rounds.

#7

2010 Topps Update Carlos Santana #330

Even though I was just gushing over the Josh Reddick rookie card, I have to say that this Carlos Santana is one slight step better.  This photo is of a rookie catcher diving headfirst into a base and claiming it like a man possessed.  Santana is clutching the base with a huge paw and won't let an opponent take it from him.  

The 2010 Topps sets have an old school feel to me.  I had just gotten back into collecting and these were some of the first packs I was tearing apart in 2010.  The set already has a retro vibe to me and I enjoy skimming through 2010 Topps and Topps Update cards.  Some great photography and good rookies are in this set.

#6

2004 Topps Roger Cedeno #490

This Roger Cedeno card was written about at the Platter a couple days ago.  I couldn't just leave it off my Top Ten keepers list because I had already displayed it once before on my blog.  That would be unfair.  This card is great.  

It has Roger Cedeno.  Awesome.

It is a play at the plate.  Super awesome.

The graphic design comic book version of Cedeno mimicking his slide into home.  Extra super awesome.

The rest of the Top Ten will have some more spectacular cardboard for your viewing pleasure.  This was a fun way to spend this summer morning.  Maybe I will spend the summer evening doing this typing thing as well. 

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.