MiLB Madness: Big-league standouts, racing tacos & 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. 

BO KNOWS MiLB
The Card: Bo Bichette 2018 Topps Heritage Minor League (image variation)
The Buzz On This: My most-collected active player bats lead-off this time as I just wanted some MLB star power here -- he has that despite a down year in 2024 -- and this one also is a reminder. Of what? That, while the MiLB options in packs are not what they used to be right now, you can find a lot of today's younger stars on Heritage MiLB cards that ran from 1962 to 1973 on cardboard -- that's 2011 to 2022 in reality -- before the line was shelved last year. This was a slightly pricier pick-up vs. my typical stuff dropped here (oddball finds from team sets) as this is a photo variation SP ... a little tougher find but not an impossible one. What might be impossible finds at some point soon or the next few years? Unopened Heritage MiLB boxes and perhaps even some earlier editions of Pro Debut ... they have to have the smallest print runs of anything from Topps in recent years. No new stuff to open in box form has had me looking at singles more and more, despite many older MiLB boxes having affordable prices ... I may dabble with both more next year.

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

TACO TIMES TWO
The Cards: Taco 2017 Grandstand Birmingham Barons & Taco 2019 Choice Albuquerque Isotopes (No relation ... I think.)
The Buzz On This: One is the team where Michael Jordan once played and is, arguably, not a spot where tacos would be atop the menu -- at least in my mind having once lived near there. The other takes its name from The Simpsons and has had some quirky cardboard over the years -- check The Buzz Archives for more from this series. Both, however, caught my eye as familiar mascots, though neither is as cool as Henry The Puffy Taco (or even Ballapeno the Jalapeño) from down in San Antonio. Both are part of mid-game mascot races ... so maybe they are related. (Get more details on those card backs.) Another random thought for random cardboard ... a foodie could have a heck of a collection of food-related mascot baseball cards.

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TALK TO THE HAND
The Card: Richard Dotson 2019 Grandstand Birmingham Barons
The Buzz On This: Maybe it's a nod to the Yogi Berra Sports Illustrated cover, maybe he's just a busy dude. The photo and its 1993 Score homage got me to bite for pocket change -- oh and Dotson is a former MLB player who you would have found in packs in the 1980s (RCs in 1981 Topps, Donruss, Fleer) and early 1990s so that probably drew me in slightly, too. He won 111 games and lost 113 for the White Sox, Yankees and Royals in a 12-year career that included an All-Star nod in 1984. He worked in the minors coaching after his playing days ended and in 2018, at age 59, he learned that his father was big-league pitcher Turk Farrell (RC in 1958 Topps). That story is a solid one ... and I only knew about it because of researching him for this baseball card.

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FRESH FROM THE 'PEN
The Card: Tim Straus 2014 Brandt Rome Braves
The Buzz On This: Only in MiLB team sets will you find baseball cards of bullpen catchers ... even though every team has them in MLB. They're part of the staff, not the playing roster. (The first? Gary Waits, Cincinnati Reds, in 1970.) The back of the card here gives most of his bio info and it's one of a few cards he does appear on. One early card -- perhaps his first but I didn't do the math -- has him on the front but the team checklist on the back. Hey, that's likely a half-card more than you've got ...

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FAMILIAR FACES (BACK THEN)
The Cards: Mike Aldrete, Terry Mulholland, Jim Lefebvre & Mark Grant 1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds
The Buzz On This: A couple years ago, I picked up a lot of older team sets and, well, things were not all that flashy and relevant to the here and now at all ... but during a recent dig through that and other stuff I noticed how this one set had big-leaguers piling up, so I pulled them out. This Pacific Coast League affiliate of the San Francisco Giants won its division that year but fell in the playoffs despite having dozens of big-leaguers on its roster. (Many didn't make this set ... Will Clark, Dan Gladden and the other Randy Johnson among them.) Aldrete played 10 years in MLB, winning a World Series ring with the Yankees in 1996. Mulholland won 124 games in a 20-year career for 11 teams. Lefebvre was an eight-year big-leaguer and the 1965 Rookie Of The Year before managing Ken Griffey Jr. as a rookie as part of a six-year managerial career after this job. Grant -- aka "Mud" -- pitched eight years for six teams and has been a Padres broadcaster since 1996. ... Turns out some of these sets can pack a lot of baseball in there.

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EARLY CARDBOARD
The Cards: Nick Adenhart 2006 Choice Midwest League All-Stars & 2006 Grandstand Midwest League Top Prospects
The Buzz On This: Both of these cards showcasing this past promising Los Angeles Angels standout are from prospect-minded sets that showcased All-Stars and then key players for the league. These kinds of sets can have higher print runs than then normal sets made for a team as all teams in the league can order/sell these ... so they can be good ways for fans to land big names affordably. Adenhart's life and career were ended in an automobile wreck with a drunk driver in 2009, the night after just his fourth big-league start and first of that season. He was 22 years old and had all kinds of baseball accolades leading up to his time in The Show.

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CAMERAMAN, ZOOM IT!
The Card: Richmond Braves (team picture) 1989 ProCards
The Buzz On This: Sometimes old MiLB cards are gems because of bad photos or weird crops, and, while this is kind of that, it's also just a textbook example of how a team photo can simply not jive with a card design used for everybody. Who's on there? Get out your loupe -- or check the card back -- and there are some surprises. Supposedly in the back row? Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews and David Justice. Also in there among the batboys, clubhouse manager, field maintenance supervisor (turf looks good, by the way), team GM and others are Leo Mazzone, Mark Lemke, Kent Mercker and a few more you probably know from the 1990s Braves dynasty and their 1995 World Series win.

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