MiLB Madness: Ballpark camels and pigs on baseball cards?

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.

The Cards: Humphrey -- 2014 Grandstand Lansing Lugnuts & Parker -- 2014 Grandstand Richmond Flying Squirrels
The Teams: Lugnuts -- High-A Oakland A's affiliate; Flying Squirrels -- Double-A San Francisco Giants affiliate
Did you know? The Lugnuts used to be a Blue Jays team ... so Bo Bichette, Vladdy Jr. and Noah Syndergaard are among their past players. Meanwhile, the Flying Squirrels' only division title was in 2014 ... the year of this card.

The Buzz About This One: So what's the deal here? Well, a camel isn't exactly an automotive feature being played up by the Lugnuts ... instead, Humphrey was only around for games played on Wednesdays. You know, hump day. He also helped deliver baseballs for the ceremonial first pitches and some lucky fans also got to take rides ... meanwhile photo ops were available during the game somewhere in the stadium. The team also sold T-shirts that read "Go nuts for Hump Day." Why all this? I couldn't tell you. It's just one of those MiLB mysteries and there's a baseball card to prove it.

Parker, on the other hand, is a little more traditional in his efforts as the team's Rally Pig -- naturally -- and it apparently worked with that championship back in the day. Born in 2010 and retired by 2015, Parker was named after the team's previous venue, Parker Field, and "literally ate himself out of Double-A," according to this piece. (Pig gotta pig out, I guess.) He was still going strong in retirement as of 2019 when that story was done. Want to know more about both of them? Check out the backs of their baseball cards below ...

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

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