MiLB Madness: Folding 389,584 towels, clean & sharp cuts, Machete, a Rally Cop & more from cardboard down on the farm

Minor league cards 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. 

ABOVE THE FOLD
The Card: Chris Petrakis 2013 Choice Jupiter Hammerheads #27
The Buzz On This One: Equipment managers actually appear on baseball cards often in the sets made and sold down on the farm -- they're far more odd than those we see made for national release in pack form -- and that's a key part of this series' existence. However, I might venture that this card has the highest towel-to-subject ratio in the history of cardboard both on the front and the back where his apparently affinity for towels dominates both. I mean, just look at those stats. Only thing weirder I've seen among the laundry side of things (beyond memorabilia cards) might be this baseball card of a washing machine.

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

CLEAN, SHARP COUPON
The Card: Slugger 2016 Portland Sea Dogs SuperCuts #NNO (coupon card)
The Buzz On This One: "No cash value?" Yeah, right. This card is a classic as the Sea Dogs' mascot was enlisted for corporate sponsor duty -- clearly Andrew Benintendi wasn't available -- for the coupon card included with every team set that year. I just want to know how he kept all that flow underneath his cap -- you see none of it through the years here. On a more literal note, mascots might be one source of continuity with MiLB team sets other than a manager or other team employees, so you can collect a little more MiLB stuff on that front if you dare to go there.

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MACHETE DON'T TEXT
The Card: Luis "Machete" Rodriguez 2017 Dot Generation Bridgeport Bluefish #NNO
The Buzz On This One: Danny Trejo and Robert Rodriguez would be proud of this one ... though the card back does explain how his nickname came to be. (Sorry, no movies this time.) I picked this one up solely for the novelty of the nickname but a search of him on Baseball Reference is interesting -- he played 22 years in the minors, a decade in formal MiLB and then a decade more in independent and foreign leagues. And that doesn't include his signing with the Dodgers at age 17 -- three years before he played an actual game. He never made it to MLB after eight seasons in Triple-A ball and was the manager of the Bluefish after playing there for a long time, going 142-138 in two seasons. There are a lot of players -- baseball lifers -- you never see on cards if you're only buying MLB stuff ... and they all can have interesting stories.

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GETTING THE WORK IN
The Card: Michael Apodaca 2019 Grandstand Arkansas Travelers #NNO
The Buzz On This One: Strength and conditioning coaches actually have appeared on cards for years, so this one isn't really anything new on that front. But, I thought the visual of carrying his gear here was different as many of these cards can have nondescript photos that make them look like players or some dude from the parking lot who stole a team jacket and cap on photo day.

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YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT
The Card: Rally Cop 2011 Grandstand Lake Elsinore Storm #NNO
The Buzz On This One: He's apparently a motivator at the ballpark who's armed with a "softie balls" gun from the looks of things ... and, oddly, he admits aiming for the face of fans at the park. Despite that, the card also dubs him as "the best motivational act in Minor League Baseball history." Sadly, I didn't land his first card here -- he has at least one before this -- but it was too weird not to grab for pocket change. (Hopefully the mascot behind him keeps 'em in line.) Want to see something weirder than this that's just so MiLB? Check out this trade offer involving the Rally Cop.

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