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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. 

A BEGGAR BOARD FOR A MASCOT ... AND CAUGHT ON CARDBOARD!
The Card: Boomer 2015 Choice Trenton Thunder
The Buzz On This: I get that MiLB games are fertile ground for autographs nine times out of 10 -- the 10th perhaps being the big-time phenom bonus baby or a re-habbing MLB star -- but there was always one thing I knew was not a good thing when it came to hounding ... the beggar board. It's a genuine no-no to present a page of stuff to a Hall of Famer for sure, but I'd also suggest that maybe two or three cards might be OK presented mounted on a page for a player to sign each card ... but nine? That's not even cool for a mascot, though from the looks of this card all nine cards there did get signed. Somehow, this super-controversial scenario got captured on a card ... though maybe Boomer is the nice guy about it all like the card back suggests.

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

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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. 

HIS FIRST FIRST
The Card: Justin Turner 2006 Grandstand Billings Mustangs
The Buzz On This: This MLB veteran, All-Star and World Series winner has played for four teams in 15 years but it all started off with a different franchise as he was a seventh-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in 2006 -- and other than the basic bio stuff that's about all this first card even says. I had this one bouncing around in my small stash of MiLB sets for some time as the Mustangs were about the only team I knew about as a kid in the real world -- in the reel world the Durham Bulls, of course, were big in the early 1990s after Bull Durham. I recently flipped back through some of my old sets and was surprised that I knew this name and it was him. Turner never actually played for the Reds in an MLB game and he's well-known for that big crazy beard but that's not here. His first Bowman Chrome card came two years later -- his only Reds card (I think) -- and his RCs are in 2010 releases when he was a Met. This one is an easy first ... and I'm not even sure he has much more MiLB cardboard. Turner is perhaps not as high-profile on cards as he was as a Dodger, but this card being a first makes it a lot more interesting to me than even his RCs. It's also so clean I might even slab it at some point, too.

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

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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. 

FACES OF FOLEY
The Cards: Chris Mudd 2009 Multi-Ad Reading Phillies #28 & Reading Phillies Update #34
The Buzz On This One: Between all of his personas -- Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love -- pro wrestler Mick Foley has a lot of cardboard appearances but there are others out there that, well, might surprise you. These surprised me as they're from nowhere near a wrestling ring and they're more than a decade old -- and yet I had never seen them before. This card of a minor-league team trainer has a cameo for Foley who was at the Reading game for a guest appearance with his TNA championship that year -- April 22, 2009, to be exact -- and it's actually not even the only Phillies card to show wrestlers or others of note. Why are there two versions? One is from early in the year and toward the end of the season the team opted to release an update set with more players (hence the card number changes) and to change the typography. So, really, there were two Mick Foley baseball cards I didn't know about. You'll see more of Mudd here next month.

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

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Buzz buys and busts a lot of boxes right here for Buzz Breaks, but one of my goals is to rip a little less and talk more about cardboard that I -- and you -- might like. One way to do that? Simple show and tell -- present a few pick-ups and say why they captured my attention.

So, with all that said, here are a few Buzz Buys ...

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MY LAST FROM THE PROJECT ... 
The Card: Mickey Mantle 2021 Topps Project70 by Alex Pardee (/12,112)
The Price: $19.99 via Topps
Why it’s Buzz-worthy: This artist captured most of the big-print-run attention in the second Project and this card that mashed his monster vibes with Mantle's 1952 Topps card and then 1981 Topps was the last one to get my attention and a buy last year. (Or was it this year?) Anyway, this one recently arrived in my mailbox and since this year's Project100 has arrived with a totally different approach and a number of changes -- not all good ones in my view -- I figured I'd drop this here. The print run of this won't be touched this year -- they're capped at less than half of that for 2022 -- but I suspect I'll be keeping an eye on the offerings. You should keep an eye on the past cards now if you passed before ... and keep an eye open on the new ones, too. You never know where the collecting winds and tastes might spark interest. Some monsters could be waiting.
Grab a box right here: None for this one ... click here for MLB boxes

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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. 

REMEMBER THIS ONE?
The Card: Brian Span (with Whitney Houston ... sort of) 1989 Sport Pro Spokane Indians #15
The Buzz On This One: If you're a regular Buzz reader, then you may remember my deep dive into this epic MiLB team set that, well, showcases how the team went to the mall to make their annual card set. No, really, each player and some coaches plugged various stores at the mall with some having funnier cards than others. Span went to DJ’s Sound City, a chain described as "a fixture in Spokane's Music Market for almost 20 years" and made one of the weirdest cards ever made. (See the rest of them at that link.) I had the chance to pick up two more of these and I did ... and you can bet I'll probably grade one -- it's just too comical not to.

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

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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. 

THE BULL BATS LEAD-OFF
The Card: Wool E. Bull 2015 Choice Durham Bulls #30
The Buzz On This One: You may know the team and mascot from Bull Durham -- technically it's not the same bull as he has a name now and only arrived in 1992 -- but this furball's card leads off here for another reason. That Daytona 500-style grip on the wheel got me looking at mascot cards I had stockpiled and I noticed a trend ... they really like to drive. Whether it's ripping around the warning track in a Frontier-branded kart like this one, or some heavy hardware like you'll soon see, there are a lot of baseball cards in minor-league team sets out there just like this ... and it's all pocket-change stuff.

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

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