MiLB Madness: A Griffey, a Junior, a pitcher who rakes + more

Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card. Here are some some new oddities in this latest edition of MiLB Madness. 

THE SECOND STINT
The Card: Ken Griffey Sr. 2010 Choice Dayton Dragons
The Buzz On This: This one popped up on a deep dive recently and I had totally forgotten about the father of an icon and Hall of Famer taking on a second career as a minor league coach and manager years ago. Of course, most collectors know the icon that is Junior but his dad was an accomplished big-leaguer, too, with 19 seasons in the majors that included three All-Star nods and two World Series rings as player with The Big Red Machine and then a third with the 1990s Reds, though they released him late that summer before the postseason. This Griffey's Rookie Card is in the 1974 Topps set and that was the last time he was in the minors before he suited up for a stint as a coach with this team before taking on a managerial role elsewhere for three years. He only has a few MiLB cards and they stand out from the pack vs. a lot of his big-league stuff with the Reds, Yankees, Braves and Mariners. That got me to bite here.

Keep reading for more examples of some weird or fun baseball cards you can find in MiLB.

RIGHT ON SCHEDULE (AGAIN)
The Item: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 2019 Buffalo Bisons pocket schedule
The Buzz On This: This son of a Hall of Famer was not one who was off-the-radar while in MiLB ... so it's natural to find him on a pocket schedule for the team and they're findable and not that pricey. Ironically, the 20-year-old only played nine games on that 2019 Bisons team and logged 123 in The Show that year -- the same year for all of his Rookie Cards and much more.

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TOOK THE WEEK OFF ...
The Cards: Assorted 1990 Star Watertown Indians cards 
The Buzz On This: I didn't bother naming any of them and, well, I might not be alone in shorting these guys their cardboard due. I was going through a lot of admittedly bad cardboard from this one and was shocked by the run of "no information available" here in this set ... a six-pack of indifference or proof that a media guide was elusive or ... well, I dunno. The first two guys? No info ... not even a position. The G.M.? Must have been busy taking all other calls. The trainer, coach and manager? I could see them being busy ... but the last two had to have baseball resumes to get hired, right? It turns out DelPiano was a player, scout and even a Marlins VP before becoming a scout for the Yankees. The others have similar stories -- and you can find them at that linked site -- while Silvestri played eight seasons in the majors between 1939 and 1951 (just 102 games ... but that's probably more than you logged). He didn't play but was on the team when the New York Yankees won it all in 1941. ... Hey, at least Cablesystems of Watertown got their plug.

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PITCHERS WHO RAKE
The Item: Ed Gustafson 1990 Best
The Buzz On This: Gustafson played four seasons in the minors and I found this one recently ripping into a forgettable box of 1990 Best packs that I had set aside and re-discovred. While that set used to be "rare" and or memorable with early then-in-demand cards of Hall of Famer Frank Thomas and others who made it big in The Show -- plus some who didn't make it big but made it like Ozzie Canseco -- this one was really dull. But this cardboard oddity got me to take a pic as this pitcher is seen posing with a rake ... and it's not some nod to MiLB batting prowess. I looked him up -- he had just five plate attempts and three at-bats in 134 career games with a sacrifice hit, a strikeout and one caught stealing being the only things not a big fat zero on his hitting stats. Don Robinson he was not. 

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SO MUCH GOING ON ...
The Item: Robert Derksen 1995 Multi-Ad El Paso Diablos
The Buzz On This: This card's photo and all that color and texture got me to bite -- a pocket-change pick-up -- but there's so much going on here beyond that uniform that just makes me want some hot-sauced barbecue wings or something and a turn on the Super Nintendo. First, that bat knob ... no, he's not Billy Ripken -- it says "Derk" but people have had to check that stuff since 1989. Then we have the hint of Frito Lay there -- it's late lunch time as I type this -- then there's the quirky but not awful typography here (remember this is 1995 and Photoshop design murders are all over cardboard back then). Whew. Oh, and did I mention this look and pose is all for ... a pitching coach? The back tells the rest of the story for this former player and manager in MiLB.

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A BIG HORSEMEN FAN
The Item: Bret Schoenrock 2022 Florence Y'alls
The Buzz On This: This card is a whole lot of mystery and a textbook MiLB oddity in a 1959 Topps homage shell. It's an indy ball team with a classic name down yonder and the set isn't big on info -- the backs are all like that -- but at least the clubbie has a card. He's a big Four Horsemen fan, right? Maybe? I'll never know ...

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