MiLB Madness: Puppies, hosts, fans, mascots and ... a Mantle?

Minor league baseball cards from the past can include some weird stuff ... sometimes stuff you wouldn't imagine to be found on a baseball card. Here are some some new fun cards and oddities in this latest edition of MiLB Madness. 

IT'S NOT A '52, BUT ...
The Item: Ryan Mantle 2008 Grandstand Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Update
The Buzz On This: The last line of this card's "Ballpark Banter" gives away the show here -- he's the third cousin of Mickey Mantle -- and there have been a few Mantles to appear on cards beyond The Mick over the years. This one played two seasons of minor-league ball for three teams in that stretch and then 10 final games during his third season -- that one in the Frontier League. The final MiLB stats? Three homers and 38 RBI in 81 games while batting .269. Per Baseball Reference, he's among six relatives of the Hall of Famer to play pro baseball.

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

... PULLED FROM THE FIELD II
The Item: Home Run Derby X used baseball from Dunkin' Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats (Aug. 11, 2023)
The Buzz On This: No, you're not having some déjà vu here -- I bought two of these earlier this year so here's some copy-pasta fresh from the oven. ... This one also could have made its way into my monthly Collecting Game-used series here on The Buzz, but instead, this one appears here because this exhibition event took place at a MiLB venue with four former MLB players leading the way smacking baseballs around the park -- Jonny Gomes, Jake Arrieta, Dexter Fowler and Nick Swisher. I read that the baseballs were not made to be sold, so the only way one could get their hands on them was to be there ... and with one of the four names being a player I collect, I did some power-shopping and landed a pair of them from a seller in Connecticut. Why? Just to have something from the event that's tied to my player. Who smacked this ball out of the park? No idea. There's no paperwork, there's no MLB Authentication sticker ... it just is what it is. I'm surprised that this event has never had any kind of card presence and really the only thing I have seen beyond used baseballs are posters ... but even those don't seem plentiful. This was from the second year of the traveling series -- the 2022 events were international and last year they showed up in different MiLB parks -- and this event was the first on American soil in 2023. The final score between the top two teams was 49-48 ... so a lot of baseballs went flying that day.

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ONE COACH, TWO PUPS
The Item: Tim Doherty 2019 Choice Albuquerque Isotopes
The Buzz On This: They tell those in the acting ranks to never work with children or animals but, well, in at least one minor league team set the managers and coaches are perhaps doing a bit of both (depending on how the draft picks are acting that year). The Albuquerque Isotopes have had a few unique sets over the years -- poke around in the archives here for more, including a tarantula -- and in this case the pairing of the chihuahua and beagle got me to bite for a pocket-change pick-up. (Sorry, Coach.)

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BALLPARK ICONS?
The Item: George & Skipper 2017 Grandstand Lake County Captains
The Buzz On This: The locals might argue over who was the bigger deal at the ballpark, but on-field emcees/hosts and mascots are findable -- but not always that plentiful (at least the first one) -- in MiLB sets. This combo and that photo that made sure to get in the scoreboard -- and a corporate sponsor -- made this is classic card for pocket change. (Disagree? Debate it with Skipper and get back to me.)

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CYCLONES HAVE 'EM ALL ...
The Item: Daniel Weiss 2014 Choice Brooklyn Cyclones
The Buzz On This: Check the archives and I'm pretty sure you'll find this team on a few cards with unusual subjects -- a pair of dance teams (a men's squad and a women's squad) I remember correctly --  and I'll go ahead and throw in this card of a superfan -- that, too, is findable in MiLB sets and perhaps nowhere else save for occasional celebrity cards in MLB sets. Weiss' story is on the back of the card to detail how it happened and oddly, that kind of explainer doesn't happen on a number of cards like this, making them true enigmas of the MiLB card game.

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THAT'S NOT THE ORBIT I KNOW ...
The Item: Orbit 2012 Grandstand Akron Aeros
The Buzz On This: This Guardians farm team was at the end of its Aeros run at this time -- they became the Akron RubberDucks in 2014 -- but that's not why this prototypical mascot card makes this lineup this time. That name bugs me ... a lot. Why? There's supposed to only be one Orbit in the mascot game. Sure, this one might have been around before ... I didn't bother a Google search beyond Houston's legendary mascot going streaking. (I'm sticking with that stance. Don't @ me.)

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IT'S A KIDS' GAME ...
The Item: Charlie Dowd 1996 Best New Haven Ravens
The Buzz On This: I think I was thinking "Dan O'Dowd" when I saw this card but, no, they're not related or even the same name ... but Dowd's two sons, Casey and Conor, sharing his baseball card make this one a little different than the typical G.M. appearance sometimes found in sets. Time flies more in reality than it does on cardboard ... at least it did for me. A 1996 card doesn't seem that old ... but it truly is considering both of those kids are at least 30 years old now.

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