MiLB Madness: Bo Bichette, a bat dog, Grover! & some mascots

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. 

BO BEFORE THE SHOW
The Card: Bo Bichette 2017 Choice Midwest League All-Stars
The Buzz On This One: I've found myself buying more cards of this guy than any other lately and some of the more-obscure stuff like this can be right up there on my radar more than second- or third-year Bowman stuff. Why? MiLB team sets and then loaded All-Star team sets like this one are inevitably a lot rarer than a lot of the basics for popular prospecting releases. Are they pricey? Oftentimes, no, but they simply have to be far more limited. (All-Star sets are likely the more plentiful of the two types as they are often sold by every team in a league.) You can find big names from the past in All-Star sets and they can be loaded with talent while standard team sets can be pricier but really only for a card or two. Now ... on to some weirder cardboard like I always have in hand for this series.

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

AN IN-PACK BAT DOG ...
The Card: Chase That Golden Thunder 2013 Topps Heritage Minor League SP
The Buzz On This One: Believe it or not, there are a few bat-retrieving dogs in MiLB -- some multi-generational dog families even as I have written about in the past -- and this guy is, if I'm not mistaken, the only one to be found in one of Topps' in-pack MiLB releases. This 1964 Topps-inspired card was a short-print in that year's set -- with even tougher chases (pun intended) being the Black (/96) and Venezuelan back parallel. I've had this Trenton Thunder card in my to-grade stack due to the novelty of it for a while, but the back edges in this release can look like he carried them home to the dugout, too. Somebody who slabbed one and got a PSA 10 has an asking price on it pushing $300 0ver on eBay ... and that's the power of a unique card. (It shouldn't get that much but you never know.) Chase has other team set cards -- and I have a few since they are so odd -- but this is the one I'd grade first.

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SUPER GROVER!?!?
The Card: Grover! 2013 Grandstand Lake County Captains
The Buzz On This One: At a glance, you'd think this was a mascot's card ... but it's not. (The mascot's name is Skipper.) This is a card for the team's "on-field host," Grover! (Yes, with an exclamation point!) Apparently he's the ringleader for Groverpalooza once a year and more at games per that card and it looks like he's still at it all these years later -- he's Andrew Grover and you can see his tweets here. Cards like this aren't uncommon in team sets and he's got several ... I went for the Super one with my pocket-change purchase this time.

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A PAIR OF LEGENDS?
The Card: Babe Ruff & Lillie Mays 2009 Grandstand Birmingham Barons
The Buzz On This One: I'm not sure if there are more puns on mascot cards than any others -- and I'm not sure I always read them -- but the names for this dynamic duo got me to stop and look. The card back this time? Not that flashy, a little more business than usual ... at least for mascot cards. The 1959 Topps front here is a little funky but I liked how they worked two stars onto one card. Besides, Michael Jordan's former team actually has a few mascots running around based on the looks of things.

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"HAVE A BLAST!"
The Card: Sarge 2016 Grandstand Jackson Generals
The Buzz On This One: You gotta love the 1986 Topps homage for this one's design -- at least for the card front -- and it's one of many for this mascot and others in the MiLB game. I thought the mug shot on the back was funny here along with the all-business, all-camo card front. Not a lot of deep thought with this card grab ... and maybe that's a good thing.

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