MiLB Madness: Chico, sons of Carney, school ties & even more

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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. 

CHICO IS THE MAN
The Card: Chico 2018 Choice El Paso Chihuahuas
The Buzz On This: This totally was going to be a Making The Grade novelty slab -- a high-mark graded card because as it's something different -- showing off a favorite mascot. Why? It's a card that showcases not only the furball on the field but the team's logo, which I think is one of the best in the game and that can't be said enough. But ... it looks like this is the back card in every set as that line you can see running down the back of the card is on all of them here and likely more. It's probably from the seal of the pack ... or machinery that handled the cards during packaging. Woof. Part of me wants to slab it anyway but maybe I'll wait until I have collected them all and them sub all of the Chicos together in a pack like a big-dog collector would. Something like that.

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

SONS OF CARNEY
The Cards: Jared Lansford & Josh Lansford 2006 Grandstand Midwest League Top Prospects & 2006 Grandstand Boise Hawks
The Buzz On This: Both of their careers have been over for years now (neither made The Show), but I only put two and two together when doing some digging though some seemingly barren team sets in a big lot and realized that they're brothers and the sons of former MLB batting champ, All-Star and World Series winner Carney Lansford. Atop that, they're the nephews of Jody Lansford (briefly a big-leaguer) and Phil Lansford, a 1978 draft pick ... that's a lot of Lansfords. I'm sure I knew about one of them back at draft time -- the A's took Jared -- but I probably waited for Bowman cardboard and forgot ... now I want to add some cards of all of them.

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WHAT'S IN A NAME NAME?
The Card: Chris Christopher 1994 Fleer ProCards
The Buzz On This: I've collected a long, long time but this is a name that only took me 30 years to come across -- and I've seen a lot of cardboard. In this case, it's probably because Christopher was a 12th-round pick who only played three seasons and there's a definite chance he might not have much more cardboard than this. My other excuse here is that where I lived the only MiLB cardboard I ever saw was Upper Deck stuff with all of the Michael Jordan hype. I think the name was the obvious reason I picked this card for right here this time and I really, really pondered what his middle name might be. Then things were taken up a notch when Baseball Reference listed his full name as "Claude H. Christopher" ... whaaaaat?

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ROLL TIDE
The Card: Taylor Jackson 2023 Choice Greenville Drive
The Buzz On This: I picked up this card as one of a number of oddballs showing coaches, mascots and more that you just won't find in the big-league stuff -- you know, that's the whole point of this monthly series -- but what I didn't notice until later was that this coach was a former Alabama Crimson Tide coaching staff member, too. Last year, she made a little baseball history as an on-field coach for the Red Sox in MiLB and this card is likely her first ... read more about her career here. This season, she's worked for the Cincinnati Reds organization.

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DON'T LET THAT FACE FOOL YOU ...
The Card: Sluggo, 2010 Grandstand Eugene Emeralds
The Buzz On This: The Emeralds still employ Sluggo all these years later, despite some more aggressive team names and logos that include a Sasquatch and an alternate team persona as the Exploding Whales -- I dig it. Both of those are definitely more edgy and aggressive takes on some MiLB ball and I think I need to track down caps there for both ... but this card made the cut this time just so I could openly wonder what an "Ursus Arctos Sluggishnus" is. Atop that, I also wondered why that green but still perhaps a little too-nice and vanilla-looking mascot could be so evasive filling out that cardboard bio you see above. What are you hiding, Sluggo? (Just kidding, Mr. Slow Green Brown Baseball Bear. We good.)

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TWO OF THE TRAINER
The Cards: Kalie Swain 2014 Choice Great Lakes Loons & 2018 Grandstand Tulsa Drillers
The Buzz On This: I regularly pick off cards of trainers, coaches and others that are more uniquely found in MiLB sets and this pairing ultimately happened on accident with buys at two different times as I just picked off stuff that was unique for pocket change prices simply because they are different and stuff can be collected to build a stash of something different under one umbrella. (Again, the whole point of this series.) The card backs pretty much tell her baseball tale up to that time -- so check them out -- and since then it looks like she's moved onto the college ranks for the University of Missouri and now with the Texas A&M Aggies.

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