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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. 

THE DUO FROM DURHAM
The Cards: Tim Robbins & Susan Sarandon 2024 Leaf Vivid Strike a Pose & Colorful Combos Autographs Clear & Prismatic Pre-Production Proofs (both 1/1s)
The Buzz On This: One of the favorite baseball films of many, Bull Durham has popped up in a few spots in a few baseball and non-sports sets from Leaf Trading Cards in recent years. These blank-back proofs are test runs for the series where this baseball set included autographs from some other baseball-related areas. There are varying colors and textures in play, so all cards are a 1/1 of that type but there are multiple versions. That has softened prices on these, but I like them and have picked up a number of them for very little. Why? I'm a collector.

Keep reading for more examples of some weird or fun baseball cards (and other stuff) you can find in and around 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. 

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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Here's a look at the top five players on this week's Baseball America Top MLB Prospects Hot Sheet and their seasons so far. It's a little something to help those who might want to dabble with prospecting -- some basics on their baseball cards alongside a highlight line from those more scouting-minded. We may not do this every week, but we'll check in on BA's top crop from time to time for the remainder of the season.

1. Trevor Rogers, SP, Marlins — Low-A Greensboro Grasshoppers
Season so far: 1-4 with 5.13 ERA, 65 strikeouts and 20 walks in 54.1 innings (12 starts)
Baseball America’s highlight line: “Rogers has worked six or more innings in his last three starts, culminating with Sunday’s gem, where he struck out a career-best 12 batters and carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning."
CARDBOARD BASICS
Approximate card total (so far): 300
First Chrome auto: 2017 Bowman Draft
One auto to consider: 2016 Leaf Metal Perfect Game
Buzz’s card take: His season numbers look a little LaLooshian but he was the 13th overall pick in last year's draft and he's on the Marlins so they'll take it -- and the potential. The recent games look relatively solid, so if you're sold on the potential of a Marlins pitcher then you might want to bite.

Keep reading for the rest of the top five ...

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