MiLB Madness: Bull Durham, Bo Bichette, NFL royalty, a big-league groundskeeper & a girl who struck out Ruth & Gehrig

-

Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... sometimes stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card. Here are some some new fun cards and oddities in this latest edition of MiLB Madness. 

THE DUO FROM DURHAM
The Cards: Tim Robbins & Susan Sarandon 2024 Leaf Vivid Strike a Pose & Colorful Combos Autographs Clear & Prismatic Pre-Production Proofs (both 1/1s)
The Buzz On This: One of the favorite baseball films of many, Bull Durham has popped up in a few spots in a few baseball and non-sports sets from Leaf Trading Cards in recent years. These blank-back proofs are test runs for the series where this baseball set included autographs from some other baseball-related areas. There are varying colors and textures in play, so all cards are a 1/1 of that type but there are multiple versions. That has softened prices on these, but I like them and have picked up a number of them for very little. Why? I'm a collector.

Keep reading for more examples of some weird or fun baseball cards (and other stuff) you can find in and around MiLB.

SLINGING SAMMY!
The Card: Sammy Baugh 2009 TRISTAR Obak T212 Minis
The Buzz On This: This Pro Football Hall of Famer played for two double-A teams in 1938, hitting just .200 with a home run and 14 RBI in 53 games. This was in the summer after his rookie season in the NFL and, well, those numbers show why he didn't continue trying to be a shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. (He didn't do badly on the gridiron, though, as he's a member of the NFL 100 All-Time Team.) His 10 cards in this surprise-filled retro release are his only baseball cards save for a single cut auto in an MLB set.

--

GIMME ALL THE BO ...
The Cards: Bo Bichette 2019 Topps Heritage Minor League Edition Clubhouse Collection Relics with Blue (/99) & Black (/50) parallels
The Buzz On This: This brand is dead now, but there are still plenty of big names in unfamiliar uniforms in its 12 years of MiLB releases and this partial rainbow is a take on what game-used Relic cards might have looked like for the 1970 Topps MLB set that it emulates with today's names. I collect Bichette, so these were easy pick-ups at good prices -- especially with the lower volumes on those parallels. I only need a couple more colors to have them all -- and one of them is the 1/1 -- so it will likely never happen. (There are far more focused Bichette and Blue Jays collectors out there than I am.) No Heritage MiLB means no cards like this ...

--

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING ...
The Card: Bob Christofferson 1983 TCMA Tacoma Tigers
The Buzz On This: You can always count on a card or two from 1980s team sets from companies like TCMA to bring the odd, despite just being cards of key members of teams. In this case, it's a groundskeeper -- you won't find that on big-league cardboard -- in his team's Cushman cart ready to either get the job done or roll over a photographer. (You decide.) Not much else can be said for this one based on that card back, but it turns out that he was a big-leaguer, too, later in his career. Christofferson made it to The Show working the Seattle Mariners' yard as its top guy for 20 years after 20-plus years in the minors. He retired in 2020 per MLB.com and he helped raise more than $1M for charity as part of his job, too. "It was never a job," he said in the profile. "It was never going to work. I put a lot of hard hours in, but it never was a job. I was doing something I loved."

--

DID YOU KNOW?
The Card: Jackie Mitchell 2009 TRISTAR Obak T212 Minis
The Buzz On This: Her story isn't a truly obscure one, but when it comes to baseball cards her lineup of 10 cards in this set is almost all that exists. She was a 17-year-old girl when she was spotted among players on a women's baseball team and was hired by Chattanooga Lookouts owner Joe Engel for some publicity stunts to help attendance. She signed in late-March 1931 and debuted in an exhibition game with the New York Yankees ... where she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back to back. Was it an April Fool's stunt with the game scheduled to have been played on April 1 but rain-delayed until the next day? (Click here for more.) There's debate on that. There's no debating this makes for a unique baseball card, though. MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided her contract and she later went on to play for the House of David barnstorming team before she put away the glove in 1937 at age 23.

--

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

>> Click here to buy cards on BlowoutCards.com