MiLB Madness: Cardboard cameos, Chourio, Bo, Vladdy & 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. 

IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW ... THE FINALE
The Cards: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. & Bo Bichette 2020 Choice Lansing Lugnuts 25th Anniversary set (nine)
The Buzz On This: My third card showing MLB All-Stars in this set showcases the same pair of players from the last two months -- now they're just together. This release is a cheap one I found on sale in the official MiLB Store ... so I did a bulk buy. Why? I want to slab some stuff in this one and the price was right for doing some cherry-picking. As I noted before, 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 past notables -- it's a solid alumni set, though these two guys are the biggest on cards this time. Another MiLB set type that can be loaded is the league "top prospects" set and similar all-star releases that can be sold by all teams in a league so more are (likely) made.

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

RIGHT ON SCHEDULE
The Item: Jackson Chourio 2023 Wisconsin Timber Rattlers pocket schedule
The Buzz On This: This guy's got the fat Milwaukee Brewers contract ($82M) but so far the stats are not that strong as a rookie -- a .222 average with four homers and 13 RBI in 31 games as a big-leaguer -- so there might/should be a refresher down on the farm soon if things don't get better (though the contract might nix that). That's perhaps why this one is here this time. I haven't been tempted by any of his early Bowman stuff -- that's an awful photo crop on that debut card from 2022 -- but he's got so much to choose from due to overproduction among prospect sets that I could have grabbed a few cards instead of this oddball item. I'll take the oddball for sure. You'd be surprised how many big names -- and even more no-names -- show up on simple stuff like this ... you just have to do a little hunting. First step? Realizing that they still exist.

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A RYNO CAMEO
The Card: Leon Johnson 2008 Multi-Ad Peoria Chiefs (with manager Ryne Sandberg)
The Buzz On This: The Chicago Cubs' Hall of Famer and icon of the 1980s and 1990s made his MLB debut as a manager with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2013 but his MiLB managing debut was in 2007 with the Peoria Chiefs were he worked two years before two more years in the Cubs' chain, making it to just Triple-A Iowa. That means there's cardboard for sure -- a Hall of Famer managing in the minors would not be missed on cardboard -- but this card is a little different as it's a cameo ... and he's got some cameos from even his rookie year back in the day. (Go look up 1983 Topps Reggie Smith.) Oh, and Leon Johnson? (After all, this is his card.) He played just two seasons -- 2007 and 2008 -- with this stop being his highest. This card is perhaps his most notable one.

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WHO'S ON FIRST?
The Card: Art Silber 2005 Choice Potomac Nationals
The Buzz On This: Here's an odd one for you ... a team owner who doubled as the weekend first-base coach. Atop that, he was 65 years old with his status as the "oldest first base coach in Minor League Baseball" leading off the card back. Why does he wear that uni number? Check out the card ...

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SIMPLICITY ...
The Card: Ray Winder Field 2006 Grandstand Arkansas Travelers
The Buzz On This: This pocket-change pick-up is a simple one that goes beyond a 1955 Bowman homage -- I grabbed it since it's a textbook example of a stadium card that may or may not show a venue of simple MiLB means. It just feels right. You could easily build a stash of hundreds of cards like this that are affordable -- a regular Ben's Biz road trip travel book in baseball card form if you wanted to. But, this one also was a bummer in it shows how MiLB changes. Read the card back for a starting point ... despite all that the team moved the following year -- though the Travelers still exist -- while the stadium was demolished in 2012. That's actually way earlier than a lot of the changes in MiLB in recent years but, per Wiki, "as of Sept. 1, 2023, the score board and light poles still remain." So there's that -- there are a lot of MiLB teams that no longer exist.

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CARDBOARD CAMEOS
The Card: Tim Terrio 1989 Cal League Cards California League Bakersfield Dodgers
The Buzz On This: This trainer card isn't that big of a deal but some players in that team's set were big cards in the past -- Jose Offerman for one -- but what caught my eye here was the baseball card decor. That's a 1988 Sport Pro Great Falls Dodgers Bill Wengert (in Wengert's locker) and a Steven Finken card at the left. You know, in case you're a collector who needs alllllll of their card appearances.

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