MiLB Madness: Bo Bichette, Casper Ghosts and 'Hey, Y'all!'

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. 

IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW ...
The Cards: Bo Bichette 2020 Choice Lansing Lugnuts 25th Anniversary set (nine)
The Buzz On This: I started prepping this one last week but realized I was light on some star power for this one, so I went to the official MiLB Store and did some window-shopping for team sets and finally opted to grab a nine-pack of a set that's got two solid names attached -- and several other big-leaguers inside -- since they were on a slasher sale and I had a discount promo code to burn. If you don't dabble in the MiLB realm, there are some affordable ways to find top names in old unis without breaking the bank and this set shows off notables from the team's past. In this case, it shows Bichette when he hit .384 with 10 homers, 51 RBI, 60 runs and 12 stolen bases in just 70 games back in 2017. I think this one finished off my run of Bichette cards found in MiLB team sets but this serves as a reminder that these look-back sets done from time to time and a more regularly appearing type of set can deliver. The sets can at times be loaded but are a little more plentiful (and that hurt values some) and other types are league "top prospects" sets and similar all-star team sets that can be sold by all teams in a league. My nine sets here were cheaper than all MLB hobby boxes so far this year.

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

TWO OF A KIND ...
The Card: The Crawdads (Conrad & Candy) 2018 Choice Hickory Crawdads
The Buzz On This: Everybody knows about the massive amount of mascot cards you can find in MiLB team sets -- even if you're not a regular reader it should make sense -- but mascot proposals captured on camera making their ways into cards? This might be a first ... I'm not sure I've ever seen it before.

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A LONG ROAD BACK ...
The Card: Frank Menechino 2011 Choice Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees
The Buzz On This: This Staten Island native had all kinds of stops in his baseball career, going from New York to a Florida junior college and then the University of Alabama for college baseball (that's why I grabbed this) before playing for the White Sox organization six seasons before going to Oakland where he finally made his MLB debut in 1999. He was there five years before joining the Blue Jays and then playing for MiLB teams for the Yankees, Reds, Rockies and Padres before calling it a playing career. After that? He came back to New York with this stop, a hitting coach and then manager, before coaching for the Marlins and White Sox in more recent years. While his MLB basics only show playing for two teams and coaching for two teams, there's a lot of baseball cards for him not at those two spots. That's my point here ... you might find more than you might think for familiar names with a look for cardboard down on the farm.

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A LIFE IN THE GAME
The Card: George Genovese 1991 Little Sun High School Prospects
The Buzz On This: Read that card back -- yes, it's from long ago -- and you'll see a lot of trivia and this card is essentially his only traditional baseball card. (He has one oddball release from 1949 but it doesn't really look like a card.) When Genovese died in 2015 at age 93, the Los Angeles Times headline called him the "greatest scout of all time" and he was a Dodgers consultant in the years after this card was made, too. This set (not technically MilB but in the realm) has a few names collectors would know from back in the day -- the only truly big one being Manny Ramirez -- but this card always struck me as interesting and unique. Added trivia here ... he's also a former big-leaguer, playing three games for the 1950 Washington Nationals with one walk and one run in just two plate appearances. That's it -- no baseball card for that.

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ODDBALL BUYING
The Cards: Jordan Price 2022 Choice Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
The Buzz On This: My picking off unusual cards for this series is a bit haphazard, and that's how I somehow ended up with not one, not two, but three copies of this card for the Jumbo Shimp's on-field emcee. (Hey, Y'all!) That kind of card actually isn't that unusual in a MiLB set -- I have others -- but I just haven't accidentally grabbed three at a time. A quick Google search shows (via Twitter) that she's still at it in this spot (not that 2022 was that long ago), that she's a retired NFL cheerleader, a self-described adrenaline junkie, a special-needs teacher and "Lily's Mommy" ... all with a baseball card.

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FAMILAR NAME ... FAMILIAR TEAM?
The Card: Corey Dickerson 2010 Grandstand Casper Ghosts
The Buzz On This: He was a big-leaguer from 2013 to 2023 -- a free agent right now -- so he's probably a somewhat familiar name if you've opened packs of MLB cards. This one? It's likely his first card unless he had some kind of junior college release -- it's not likely but not impossible -- before the Colorado Rockies drafted him the eighth round of the 2010 MLB Draft. "Firsties" was one reason I picked up this card, but I also hadn't seen anything for the Casper Ghosts -- that's Casper, Wyo., a state that has weather so rough at times there's no high school baseball in the state and only American Legion baseball in the summer. Creative name, though. The team was there from 2001 to 2011 (only four years as the Ghosts, another reason I missed that) between time as the Butte (Mont.) Copper Kings and the Grand Junction (Colo.) Rockies. These days, that team is the Grand Junction Jackalopes, an independent team in the Pioneer League.

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