In the minors: There are surprises to be found

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With In the Minors, we’ve recently explored some of the unusual finds that collectors will discover in their sets of minor league baseball cards.  (Related links at the end of this item.)

But you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Take for instance Ken Larsen here, a contributor to the Jamestown Jammers who appears on this card — his apparent Rookie Card so to speak (first minor league card) — in the Jammers’ 2006 team set. What’s his team role?

Enforcer.

What’s that mean? Here’s what the back of the card says: “Ken ‘The Enforcer’ Larsen is entering his first season with the Jammers. Ken has been assigned as the Director of Stadium Seating, his tasks include overseeing operations, staffing and maintaining the ‘green team.’ Ken received his nickname after he dangled a spectator from his shoestrings atop the grandstand roof for trying to pass a bleacher ticket off as a grandstand ticket. Ken’s hobbies include hunting, fishing, raising beef cows and looking for trouble.”

In other words, you don’t mess with the Jammers’ Enforcer — or you’ll get squashed like a grape.

While we didn’t find any other cards as unique as Larsen’s during a random search of minor league releases, here are a few others that stood out  from down in the minors …

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With the influx of international talent to major league baseball in the last 20 years, we’re kind of shocked that this is the only team interpreter card that we’ve seen. While we know that the Lansing LugnutsPeter Liu is far from the only interpreter in American baseball, it’s the only card of an interpreter that we have cataloged.

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Sometimes a nickname says it all, but in the case of the Hagerstown SunsTony Dahbura it sort of does. What’s his role with the team? He shagged balls in the outfield during BP for one game — hence the nickname, Shag. The card appearance came as part of an eBay auction that he won. Read all about it here.

others10A few years ago, the West Tenneseee Diamond Jaxx didn’t auction a card appearance like the Suns, but rather had the 2005 Teachers of the Year — Helen New and Jan Thompson — included in cards in the team’s set. Unique, eh?

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We can’t tell you just how many minor league team sets included front office personnel — tons of them do — but the team owners didn’t seem to have as many cards. But the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes have had at least six years’ worth of owner card appearances. One thing’s for sure — Jerry Walker and Bill Tucker must like baseball cards.

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When’s the last time you saw a baseball card for the bat boy? Yeah, we didn’t think so … but the 2006 Mobile BayBears set included this card of Wade Vadakin.

Not to be outdone, the Keene Swamp Bats — which is actually a New England Collegiate Baseball League team (next step, the minor leagues) — included the batboy and ballgirl in a 2003 set …

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Lawrence Skiddy is a member of the Syracuse SkyChiefs (now just Chiefs) Wall of Fame along with guys like Tom Henke, Hank Sauer, Willie Horton and Grover Cleveland Alexander. What makes him so different? He was the team’s beat writer for the Syracuse Herald Journal from 1934-51 — his card in the 2001 Skychiefs Hall of Fame set says so.

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Beth Jarrett was a trainer for the Harrisburg Senators when this card was released a couple of years ago — trainers who are in minor league sets aren’t unusual. But just this year Jarrett became just the second female trainer in minor league history to be promoted to Class AAA. She’s now the trainer for the Syracuse Chiefs. Read more about her story here.

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It’s not usual for team personnel to appear in sets, but the Auburn Doubledays included something we didn’t see in any other sets we examined for our look in the minors … the team chiropractor. Do you think Dr. Dale Buchberger handed out this Topps-inspired piece when someone asked for his business card?

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The clubbies appear on their share of cards in the minors, but this one just stood out for some reason. (No, not the Unicel ad.) You know the clubhouse managers have all of the good stories and have probably seen it all after years in the minors. At this point (in 2005), Phil Schelzo was in his 11th season as the Vermont Expos clubby. His card is pretty vanilla — “Phil enjoys traveling and reading sports magazines” for example — but finishes strong. “If he could have any job in the world, it would be working with the Expos.”

While the parent team has changed — and the Expos are now the Vermont Lake Monsters — he’s still there, working at his dream job.

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One final inclusion in some — but not many — minor league team sets are stadium cards. Cardboard for the cathedrals of the game really are a lost relic in the MLB sets of today. Sure a few will pop up here and there as part of insert sets (ones that really aren’t about the ballparks), but on the whole few sets include them as a regular component.

Sure, there’s not a lot of value for a Wrigley Field card — or one of Banner Island Ballpark, home of the Stockton Ports — but fans of the game and fans of their teams can appreciate their inclusion. They can appreciate the real value of a card, something that makes their season’s reflection on cardboard — their team set — truly complete.

And that should be what cards should be all about.

AND WHILE YOU’RE HERE, CHECK OUT THESE ITEMS …

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In The Minors: Sponsors often get their due on minor league cards.

Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site, like eBay, and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission.
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