Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card and here are five example of some oddities in this latest MiLB Madness series item. 

ONE (OF MANY CARDS) FOR THE DOGS
The Card: Chase & Derby -- 2011 Multi-Ad Trenton Thunder No. 34
The Buzz On This One: Dogs appearing on baseball cards is way, way more common than you might think in the minors even though, well, it's not all that common in the world. So, what's the deal? Well, for years Chase was this team's bat dog -- retrieving bats and balls during various times on gameday and bringing water to umpires -- yes, a golden retriever trained to take the place of a batboy. Chase, who died in the fall of 2013, worked with the team for a decade before his son Derby took over until 2018. Derby's son Rookie is still working for the Thunder which is now a collegiate summer league team after being a New York Yankees affiliate from 2003 until last year. (See more about them all right here.) Other pups from this family have actually worked for other teams and there are many more pups in parks beyond that. (I could have done an item showing a dozen ... but you'll see them all here later.) Before his death, Chase even appeared in packs of 2013 Topps Heritage MiLB cards while the rest are found in team sets like this card -- and it's not the only one to show them together.

Keep reading for four more examples of weird baseball cards you can (almost) only find in MiLB.

Continue reading →

Minor league cards can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card and here are five example of some oddities in this latest MiLB Madness series item. 

JUST MARVEL AT THIS ODDITY
The Card: Froggy, T-Bone & Juan Blancarte -- aka the "Team Leaders" -- 2014 Grandstand Bakersfield Blaze
The Buzz On This One: I feel like I need to make some catchy Grateful Dead reference here or something with how this trio sounds  (and the team name) but I'll play it straight and let it speak for itself -- this is a baseball card for a program salesman with an interesting story, a bus driver with a knack for landing free popcorn and a rookie clubhouse manager who makes sure his team is "well-fed, well-buttered and clean." Just read it (click for a closer view) ... it's a perfect minor-league oddity.

Keep reading for four more examples of weird baseball cards you can (almost) only find in MiLB.

Continue reading →

Minor league cards can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card and here are five example of some oddities in this latest MiLB Madness series item. 

ABOVE THE FOLD
The Card: Chris Petrakis 2013 Choice Jupiter Hammerheads #27
The Buzz On This One: Equipment managers actually appear on baseball cards often in the sets made and sold down on the farm -- they're far more odd than those we see made for national release in pack form -- and that's a key part of this series' existence. However, I might venture that this card has the highest towel-to-subject ratio in the history of cardboard both on the front and the back where his apparently affinity for towels dominates both. I mean, just look at those stats. Only thing weirder I've seen among the laundry side of things (beyond memorabilia cards) might be this baseball card of a washing machine.

Keep reading for four more examples of weird baseball cards you can (almost) only find in MiLB.

Continue reading →

Minor league cards can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card and here are five example of some oddities in this latest MiLB Madness series item. 

BARBEQUED BASEBALLS?
The Card: Nate Alleyne 2018 Grandstand San Jose Giants #34
The Buzz On This One: We'll just accept it as a given that a clubhouse manager needs a baseball card -- it happens in the minors -- but what might lead one to be grilling a baseball on a card? You know ... I have no idea but here it is. You know what's weirder? The fact that this guy has multiple baseball cards where he's toting water bottles and one where he's running a vacuum cleaner at home plate. The year before this one? Golfing with a baseball. Don't believe me? Click here.

Keep reading for four more examples of weird baseball cards you can (almost) only find in MiLB.

Continue reading →

Minor league cards are a fun anomaly in the cardboard world with some of the weirder cards ever made to be found there -- most without a single autograph or piece of memorabilia to be found. Many of those cards not even all that well known, either, but unique cards can capture attention and tell stories. Don't believe that? Just ask Keith Comstock. 

This time for MiLB Madness, Buzz is coughing up two of the weirder possibilities you can find on cardboard. In the case of two real teams and real baseball cards, we're talking about an actual camel and a pig who both have at least one card appearance out there in the world.

I know because, well, I had to have them.

Continue reading →

Minor league team sets are a fun anomaly in the cardboard world with some of the weirder cards ever made to be found there -- most without a single autograph or piece of memorabilia to be found. Many of those cards not even all that well known, either, but unique cards can capture attention and tell stories.

Don't believe that? Just ask Keith Comstock. 

Many times, team sets can be made in super-rare quantities -- sometimes just a few hundred sets to be sold at team gift shops or even given away at games. You won't find their key cards slabbed by the thousands and you won't find people sprinting to the card aisle to grab and flip 'em on release day, either. But you might find them to be a fun alternative to collect until those days of hunting for packs and actually finding them are a little more routine. They aren't all easy finds, those MiLB sets, but they might not break the bank to find.

Now, with that said, check this one out ... our first MiLB Madness piece.

Continue reading →

Silent Bob would be proud of this pack of Mallrats.

Sometimes when you think you've seen it all in card collecting, it just takes a glimpse into the bargain bin to discover something that's been there waiting for you for years. This time? Well, it's an oddity that Buzz found in a recent buy of some MiLB team sets.

It's a Sport Pro set for the 1989 Spokane Indians ... a simple 26-card release for the San Diego Padres' A-ball affiliate at the time -- a championship squad no less -- where the players, coaches and manager you will know all went to the University City Mall to take their baseball card photos.

No, really. They went to the mall.

The mall is no more -- it was demolished back in 2015 after a 50-year run (for those who don't know what a mall is, go ask your parents) -- but the cardboard lives forever because of some memorably stupid scenes that make for cardboard treasure if you ask me.

Outfielder Brian Span's card from his second and final season as a pro -- he hit just .213 for Spokane that summer -- is a textbook example of the oddities in this set. He's posed with a cardboard cutout of Whitney Houston holding a big bag of tapes (Too early for CDs, right?) from DJ’s Sound City, a chain described as "a fixture in Spokane's Music Market for almost 20 years." Its mall shops died in 1996 citing "stiff competition with discount stores and decreased traffic at music stores in malls."  (Just wait for iTunes and iPods, guys.)

There are other cameos and other cards that will make you want to go shopping right now and grab an Orange Julius before you hit the arcade. Keep reading among the cardboard oddities that can offer a trip back in time.

Continue reading →