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 ANNIE SAVOY!
The Cards: Susan Sarandon 2024 Leaf Pop Century Now Showing Red, White & Blue Mojo Pre-Production Proofs (each a 1/1 card)
The Buzz On This: This long-running non-sports catch-all card franchise often shows celebs in headshots or on fashionable red-carpet moments, but when I spotted a few of these blank-backed cards sporting a photo from Bull Durham -- still likely the movie of all movies when it comes to Minor League Baseball -- I picked off each of these and another color (to be seen elsewhere later) among a bunch of these proofs with various colors and textures from this set. Why? They're affordable and fun -- something rare (each color/texture is the lone copy in proof form) -- and still can be collected without breaking the bank. I landed these for less than $10 a card shipped, though I wouldn't have bothered if these didn't have the Annie Savoy visual. (This is from the memorable batting cage scene and the set is made to lightly emulate a movie ticket.) I did a lot of cheap proofs here, so I'll show off others and my other shade of this one elsewhere at some point. These aren't my typical oddball cards here, but I figured since we're in-season I'd mix in some other stuff from the MiLB realm.

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 ... 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.

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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. 

WAIT, WHAT? ... PART 2
The Item: Kerry Wood & Pat Cline (aka "Future Stars") 1997 Best Orlando Rays
The Buzz On This: Last month, I showed off a card that surprised me as I'd never seen it before and this one is a sequel -- this time, it's former Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood in a Rays jersey from a team set and not a card found in packs from the former card-maker known as Best. It's once again Wood with the Orlando Rays with a uni look that absolutely moved south to Tampa Bay the following summer, not a Chicago Cubs jersey. (These Rays were a Cubs farm team.) It's one of two Wood cards in that set -- spoiler: look for Wood one last time here next month -- and this is a quick, quirky start to this month's piece. A familiar face in an unfamiliar look is a fun part of MiLB cardboard ... so stuff like this can make for a cool collection. This one just looks extra different with a MiLB logo that became an MLB logo.

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. 

WAIT, WHAT?
The Item: Kerry Wood 1998 Best Player Of The Year - Best Possibilities promo card
The Buzz On This: This card is one that I'd apparently never seen until just recently and it really threw me for a loop as Wood was a fireballer who only played for the Chicago Cubs back at this time as part of a 14-year MLB career. Why was it weird? Well, on 1998 cardboard, Wood was firmly a Chicago Cub and definitely not a Tampa Bay Devil Ray as they were known then and this logo is theirs for sure. But ... this card shows Wood as a member of the 1997 Orlando Rays and most MiLB cards of him from back then -- the ones I pulled -- used road unis, so the Rays name and the logo weren't as obviously seen like they were on MLB fields that year. The Orlando Rays were the Cubs' farm team until 1997, switched to the Mariners in 1998 when the Rays arrived in Tampa Bay that year, and then worked with Tampa Bay's prospects from 1999 until the team moved to Alabama to become the Montgomery Biscuits. Wood, of course, was a Cub from 1998-2008 (and a Cub on cards even longer than that) before he finished his career with stops in Cleveland and New York as a Yankee before a return to the Cubs. Somehow, I'd never noticed this card.

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. 

DIGGING ON SWINE
The Card: Parker The Rally Pig 2012 Grandstand Richmond Flying Squirrels
The Buzz On This: This guy has more than a few baseball cards, believe it or not, and this isn't the only time I've grabbed one for the ballpark star who was born in 2010 and retired by 2015. He was named after the team's previous venue, Parker Field, and "literally ate himself out of Double-A," according to this piece. Do I have all of the Parker cards now? Maybe ... I need to research this one further and then check my archives. I have to be close.

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. 

REMEMBERING HERITAGE ...
The Cards: Max Fried 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League cards
The Buzz On This: Before he was among the stacked rotation of the Atlanta Braves and got himself a World Series ring, Fried was a member of the Fort Wayne TinCaps and the Mississippi Braves and he appeared on cards in the in-pack MiLB sets released under the Topps Heritage line. That meant retro designs here -- 1964, 1965, 1967 and the burlap-inspired 1968 look -- but with clean, modern printing and other touches that put it in the here and now while looking a lot like back then. Fried missed a year (I presume due to his injury/trade) and has some other inserts and parallels in these sets before his Heritage RC in 2018 and all that's come since. I keep talking about doing a run of some players' Heritage cards in slabs and I grabbed all of these since they're all affordable (despite being likely far rarer than anything Heritage MLB) and just might do it for both MiLB and MLB releases. Also: The Heritage MiLB brand apparently died in 2023 ... so pour one out for that one while we're at it.

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. 

THE BIG DOG
The Card: Chico "Man's Best Friend" -- 2021 Choice El Paso Chihuahuas
The Buzz On This: MiLB mascot cards always get a slight look from me, but since there are simply so many -- they are apparently a staple of team sets these days as they are one of only a few sources of continuity from year to year -- not that many actually stand out ... or, really, only the best-looking ones stand out to me. And like this guy, I'll bite. Chico is a bit different, though, as I've actively picked off most cards for this mascot with one of the baddest logo appearances in all of MiLB and also an appearance on one of the best caps. This card had eluded me but I think it's a solid one with a simple design, a clean at-the-game photo, and the basics.

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. 

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.

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From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The boxes: 1990 Best minor-league baseball cards (three of 'em!)
Where to buy: Will take some looking ...BlowoutCards.com for different Retro Rips

Keep reading for a breakdown and gallery of the best of what was in this one.

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