MiLB Madness: Ballpark swine, a familiar name, Millie & more

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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. 

DIGGING ON SWINE
The Card: Parker The Rally Pig 2012 Grandstand Richmond Flying Squirrels
The Buzz On This: This guy has more than a few baseball cards, believe it or not, and this isn't the only time I've grabbed one for the ballpark star who was born in 2010 and retired by 2015. He was named after the team's previous venue, Parker Field, and "literally ate himself out of Double-A," according to this piece. Do I have all of the Parker cards now? Maybe ... I need to research this one further and then check my archives. I have to be close.

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

A FAMILIAR NAME IN THE GAME
The Hats: Wyatt Olds 2023 Portland Sea Dogs game-used road, alternate and batting-practice caps
The Buzz On This: This trio of caps popped up online on the cheap (around/under $20 apiece) from a Maine seller who had a bunch of Sea Dogs stuff -- signed and unsigned -- after last season had ended and it all likely directly from the team given the volume and range of players. I bit on these three and one more you'll likely see here or in the Collecting Game-used series later. (I want to take some time and research that other one as it's a specialty cap where I could narrow down when it was used a little more precisely.) These had waited long enough to surface here, so I figured I'd add a game-used twist to this series this month. They're clean but marked and/or signed, but for a pitcher I'd not really suspect much dirt or grime but that didn't matter that much for me. Why did I buy? This guy's name seemed really familiar to Buzz -- and when I checked his Baseball Reference page, well, that full name (Spoiler: first name isn't Wyatt) seemed really familiar. The model of cap appears on one of his few MiLB cards here so that's cool ... at least to me.

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ZOOM IT, CAMERAMAN ...
The Cards: Steve Kolinsky & Ricky Freeman 1994 Fleer ProCards Huntington Cubs
The Buzz On This: I plucked this pair of old cards out of a team set just so I could high-brow commentate on the photos here. Was a zoom lens not allowed in the Appalachian League or did we want to show off the facilities? Was the "Bo Knows" pose on the mind of the 19th-round draft pick for his first baseball card? Most of the images in the set actually are shot full-body like this -- not all but most -- either at home plate, on the mound or in the outfield but for whatever reason these two made the cut to be cut down this time. Fun facts: This was the last year for the team, though its baseball field was built back in the early 1900s, and MLB Network's Matt Vasgersian first worked for this same West Virginia-based team back in 1991.

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A LIFE IN THE GAME
The Card: Jack Lamabe 1996 Best New Haven Ravens
The Buzz On This: This former big-leaguer shared a Rookie Card with four others in the 1962 Topps set and had a number of other cards, too, as his MLB career spanned seven seasons with the Red Sox, White Sox, Mets, Pirates, Cardinals, Cubs and Astros in the 1960s. His MLB time included a World Series ring with the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals after he took the loss in Game 6 of the Fall Classic. As his card notes, he was also the manager of the LSU Tigers ... read more about him here. I initially plucked him out of this set since he was a former big-leaguer but there's a lot of baseball stuff here ... he's even got a unique nickname.

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I GOT LURED
The Card: Millie (Jenny Robertson) 2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham 65th Anniversary stamp
The Buzz On This: I typically stick to MiLB team sets for this series, but since I had so much random stuff sitting and waiting to be talked about I figured I'd pop up one of the cards from a MiLB staple here this time. In 2016 Topps Archives, the big-leaguers were joined by some big-screen players and others from a memorable season with the Durham Bulls. That one included seven notables on standard cards and then the A-listers were added for autographs but, oddly, not all had regular cards. Then later in the year for a simple retail release, 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary, these re-surfaced with foil stamping as you can see here. Millie, Bobby, Jimmy, Tony Larry Hocket, Nuke LaLoosh and director Ron Shelton had standard cards, while the autographed set added the big guns, Annie Savoy and Crash Davis, as short-printed sigs to the lineup. Why did I grab this for pocket change? It looked clean and I pondered it for a grading submission .... just for fun. Might happen.

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SCHOOL TIES ... AND PRE-MILB?
The Card: Nick Eicholtz 2014 Choice Cotuit Kettleers (Cape Cod League)
The Buzz On This: Choice, a maker of minor league team sets, apparently also made Cape Cod League sets at some point and this player popped up on a list of former Alabama Crimson Tide guys so I grabbed it. He was a 13th-round pick in 2016 but opted to finish up in school and pitch as a senior. Eicholtz went un-drafted after that ... and this may be his only baseball card. I know you're wondering ... what the heck is a Kettleer? Click here.

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

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