MiLB Madness: Young stars, fans' cards, cosmic mascots, cheesy pics ... Jerry Lawler & Mr. Belding have baseball cards?

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. 

PRE-ROOKIE CARDBOARD
The Card: Bo Bichette 2019 Choice International League Top Prospects #2
The Buzz On This One: With Bowman and other prospecting brands giving players cards as early as possible -- and stuff like USA Baseball and Perfect Game getting us cards before guys are even pros -- pre-rookie MiLB cards like this don't have as much oomph as they used to (though they may not have ever been super-popular) ... but I still like them. This one comes from an All-Star-style set that includes many more other notables like Bichette here and they're actually among the easier sets to find most often as most teams in the leagues sell the sets ... so there are likely more of these made than your typical sets. Nonetheless, I like grabbing anything for notables in MiLB team sets as they're easily tougher (or at least less plentiful) than anything Bowman. That's why I have this one batting lead-off ... the rest of the stuff you'll see this time is on the oddball side of things.

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

A WWE LEGEND ... AND A LEGENDARY WWE FAN?
The Cards: Chris Mudd (with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler) 2010 Multi-Ad Reading Phillies #33 ... Chris Mudd (with Saved By The Bell's Dennis Haskins aka Mr. Belding) 2011 Multi-Ad Reading Phillies #28
The Buzz On This One: Mick Foley's baseball card popped up in this series last time and this time we've got another from the WWE realm as Mudd shared his card with Lawler in 2010. And the year after that, a Saved By The Bell star's ballpark appearance led to a cardboard cameo. (I took the zoomed-in photo as I wasn't sure who it was at first, but the Google machine confirmed Haskins wearing the same open jersey. Trainer cards are unusual in the grand scheme of things -- but not really in MiLB sets -- but celeb cameos make these among the better trainer cards I have ever seen.

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IS HE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE?
The Card: Cosmo 2018 Choice Las Vegas 51s #36
The Buzz On This One: The photos from from NASA's James Webb telescope the last two days have people marveling at the potential of what's out there in a galaxy (or two ... million) far, far away. This former mascot hasn't been seen since 2018 when the team became the Las Vegas Aviators but he remains an odd favorite of mine ... perhaps Koufaxia was in one of those NASA photos and we can find Cosmo sometime soon?

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YEP, GROUNDS CREW BASEBALL CARDS ...
The Cards: Kelly Rensel & Grant Mattix 2013 Choice Huntsville Stars #24 ... "Grounds Crew" 2011 Choice Long Island Ducks #34
The Buzz On This One: There aren't tons of grounds crew cards out there that I have seen -- even in MiLB sets -- and as you can see here sometimes they give you names and the basics on the team ... and other times they don't. Maybe somebody here is a big-leaguer now? I'll never know ... but I think these were amusingly odd cards for pocket change.

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SAY CHEESE!
The Cards: Dann Howitt 1990 ProCards #147 ... Randy McCament 1990 ProCards #34 ... Omar Vizquel 1989 ProCards #537
The Buzz On This One: These in-pack MiLB cards from the past are mostly quite rough -- the overall sets were massive meaning tons of commons for every "name" star and each team also was released in team-set form, too, to make them very plentiful even all these years later. (That makes even the top names relatively worthless ... save for Keith Comstock and his baseball. These cards are also cheese-tastic with Vizquel's eyes closed, a lanky pitcher working the outfield wall (sure, dude) and Howitt's stupid/amused look on his face equaled by the baseball seemingly glued to his bat. You can find a lot of worthless cards with quirks if you stop and look at a lot of sets like this. This is the tip of an iceberg ... though there are stretches where some sets are so bland they truly need some light moments like these.

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THE FANS GET CARDS, TOO ...
The Cards: Russ Dragon 2018 Grandstand Hillsboro Hops #NNO ... Patrick Buffaline 2017 Choice Tri-City ValleyCats #30 ... Jordan Holley 2017 Grandstand Akron RubberDucks #NNO
The Buzz On This One: There are actually a number of cards from the past that showcase fans for various reasons -- posthumous honors, iconic ballpark presences, contest winners and who knows what. Here are three simple pocket-change examples that in some cases don't say a lot, sometimes inform about team programs and, well, sometimes they simply showcase affinities for boneless wings. Will these be their only cards? In most cases, yep. But on the slim chance they're not? These would be pretty cool years later.

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