CAMARILLO, Calif. – One of the nation's foremost baseball-card collectors, a self-described nerd who spent the last 13 years accumulating about 500 unblemished rookie cards of Hall of Famers, iconic achievers and interesting characters, settles into a booth at a deli and scans the menu.
"I'll have the hot tongue," he tells the waitress, sharply but politely. "On rye."
It's obvious this is no meek, reclusive hobbyist. In fact, one of the cards in his collection is his own. The man possessing the only known perfect-condition rookie cards of Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson and many other luminaries was known during his 13-year playing career as "Da Meat Hook." He's Dmitri Young, slimmed down, smiling and back in Camarillo, the farm-flecked suburb of Los Angeles where he grew up.
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Bob.