MiLB Madness: Space Ham, Veterans Day, Club Man & 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. 

NOT EVEN THE COOLEST SAINTS CARD ... BUT CLOSE?
The Card: Space Ham 2021 Choice St. Paul Saints
The Buzz On This One: When comedy icon Bill Murray is among the team owners and has at least one baseball card out there, it's hard to have any one card for this long-running team grab any kind of added attention or carry cool-card status beyond that ... but this one probably does command some attention despite it not, I repeat not, being the only minor league card out there showcasing a pig. So, what's the deal here and is that a Space Jam jersey worn by Space Ham? Why, indeed it is ... and it's teased here and explained more in-depth on the card. (Click for a closer look.) Oh, and don't forget that Murray was in that movie alongside that failed member of the Birmingham Barons.

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

A CARD FOR VETERANS DAY
The Card: Jerry Howard & Michael Cupp 2014 Grandstand Salem Keizer Volcanoes Military SGA set
The Buzz On This One: I picked this one up back in the day since it's a card showing a team executive -- I thought that was odd -- but since it's Veterans Day I figured this one should make the lineup today. This actually comes from a complete set that showcases a member of the team alongside a veteran and tells their stories. Since this one is a set of its own, I assumed it was probably tied to an event and after a quick search, yes, in fact, it was. It's an annual effort that Howard has been honored for. (Read about it here.) A number of players and the mascot shared cards with veterans in this set with the best one perhaps being Christian Arroyo.

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THE ALL-STAR
The Card: Tim Hudson 1998 Burger King Huntsville Stars #13
The Buzz On This One: This isn't the first MiLB card for this 222-game winner and multi-time All-Star for the Oakland A's, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants but it's definitely an early one. It's simple and clean -- you can't always say that for some MiLB card sets of that era -- and it did manage to get the corporate sponsor in there without commanding too much attention. Cards like this aren't super-pricey but they can be tough to find at times. I'm a lot more likely to chase stuff like this over easily available Bowman prospect cards. (But that's just me.)

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TENACIOUS DD?
The Card: Tenacious & Diesel Dawg 2013 Grandstand Altoona Curve
The Buzz On This One: I'll pick up a mascot card or two or three when I go MiLB card hunting -- I could easily present monthly lineups of just the furballs and their friends here for sure -- but the names here just got me to stop and look. I wondered if this was the greatest card in the world. Then I decided that, no, this is just a tribute.

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THREE OF A KIND ...
The Card: The Pepperoni Rolls 2017 Choice West Virginia Black Bears #37
The Buzz On This One: There are plenty of racing mascots in the world -- in fact, more than one team has racing food mascots -- and this is just another textbook example of the oddball kinds of cards you will find in MiLB team sets. Oddly, you'd think this was a card for some sponsor plug but there's no mention of that at all in the bios of Hot Pepper Hank, Pepperoni & Cheese Patty and Double Stuff Dave ... the Pepperoni Rolls are apparently jovial competitors.

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A DATA ANALYST'S ROOKIE CARD?
The Card: Zach Stovall 2021 Choice Down East Wood Ducks #34
The Buzz On This One: I initially found this one scrolling through some Wood Ducks cards -- you know, that newer team from Down East -- but then I saw "data analyst" here and I wondered ... is that a first? It might be, though I have had some tech-related finds on cards here before. While he's a rookie on this one per the card back, Stovall actually worked a couple years for the Tennessee Vols baseball team, too. (So now I'm wondering out loud if the Vols' baseball card sets -- if they even made them -- had cards like this.) It's just another example of how MiLB sets can include some odd stuff -- this is definitely that -- and it's also another sign of how the game has changed over the years. You can find all kinds of team members on cards ... just yet not really at the highest levels of cardboard.

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CLUB. MAN.
The Card: Ian Bethune 1996 Best New Haven Ravens #31
The Buzz On This One: I'll admit I grabbed this card since I thought that position box was funny -- something fitting of A Night at the Roxbury -- but this actually pre-dates that Saturday Night Live-spawned movie. The bio here is brief but compelling with its factoid drops -- Italian ice, Yale Field and world-class softball -- and that last part pretty much leads into a different nugget. These says, Bethune is apparently an editor/photographer for SB Nation's UConn blog. (Click here.) Twitter, while it lasts, is a wild one tying the whole room together. (No, no Lebowski nod here ... it just sounded good. But if I look hard enough maybe I could find a card ... we'll see.)

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