MiLB Madness: Mascot bling, Hawaii ball, big-leaguers & 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. 

ALL ABOUT THAT BLING!
The Card: Wool E. Bull 2023 Choice Durham Bulls
The Buzz On This: It seems the mascot card is a staple of MiLB team sets -- it's one of few cards you can typically count on finding year after year unless there's a team name change -- and this one of the modern-day iteration of the mascot many might first remember from Bull Durham. This card caught my attention as it's one of few where the mascot shows off their version of the team's championship ring -- a ring card collection could be an interesting little twist even if not limited to just mascots. Beyond that bling, the achievements captured on the back of this card are also pretty strong for a veteran you can see on a lot of cardboard. Collect 'em all!

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

MACON THE CITIES
The Card: Dansby Swanson 2017 Macon Braves pocket schedule
The Buzz On This: You probably have some cards of him in Diamondbacks, Braves and now Cubs uniforms, but I bet a lot of them cost more than this pocket-change pick-up that, well, might not be as easy to find. Why? It's a MiLB pocket schedule -- made to have on hand to instantly know the team's schedule at a glance if you don't have a smartphone handy. How many teams actually still make these? I'm not sure but I know that it's got to be less and less as, well, pretty much everybody should have a smartphone handy.

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THIS AIN'T CINCY ...
The Card: Ross Grimsley 2007 Waikiki BeachBoys Hawaii Winter Baseball
The Buzz On This: The words "Waikiki BeachBoys" should be a sign that this ain't your typical cardboard and it's not. This one is from a few team sets from a short-lived (at least as a revived entity) Hawaii Winter Baseball league that ran from 2006 to 2008 after it initially existed from 1993 to 1997 ... so that first part wasn't long-lasting, either. There were four teams in this version with action in two cities and players from America as well as Japan on the rosters and some eventual big-leaguers in the mix as players and some past players as coaches. Grimsley was a big-leaguer for 11 seasons, wining 124 games and picking up an All-Star nod in 1978 to go with three years' worth of postseason appearances for the Reds and Orioles ... but no World Series rings. (He was 2-1 in four World Series appearances in 1972, though.) I went with this veteran as a sample card over some players I wasn't that familiar with. These sets are oddball for sure.

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THAT YOU, ROMANOFF?
The Card: Nutasha 2018 Grandstand Richmond Flying Squirrels
The Buzz On This: This mascot arrived a couple years before this season -- nut a Rookie Card ... err, not -- but the simple approach of taking a portrait, cutting it out and slapping it on a sea of Photoshopped logos helped this one jump out at me from a sea of mascot cards. I noticed it and grabbed it for pocket change. Simple as that.

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MORE FROM SENIOR
The Card: Ken Griffey Sr. 2012 Grandstand Bakersfield Blaze
The Buzz On This: Poke around a month or two in the archives for this series and you'll see more of what the deal is here -- this is a second of a trio of MiLB cards I picked up for this former Big Red Machine star -- who was, albeit briefly, a teammate of Grimsley as a rookie. The look here is a modern but still retro take on the 1955 Bowman set but with a few more details added to that TV-inspired package and it touts all of his experience on the back.

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DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
The Card: Chase & Derby 2011 Multi-Ad Sports Trenton Thunder
The Buzz On This: This duo has appeared on a lot of cardboard -- and a lot of them are in this series in the archives (so go look using the tags section below) -- and this one caught my attention with both on the same card but while keeping with a design choice that, well, would perhaps be a bit of a dog to pull off. (I would have just let the mascots' card have a natural photo background rather than cutting it out.) Update: If you made it this far and you go check the archives you'll find -- just like I just did -- that I apparently liked this card so much this is the second time I've picked up a copy and written about it. Whoops, but that's collector life ... doubles.

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