A major minor deal

The major leagues and minor leagues are having a fight and it's a little bit upsetting to me.

I can relate to the minor leagues. I think most people who don't live in a city with a major league team do. I've attended many more minor league games than I have major league games and the formative years of my career involved minor league teams.

With the rift between the majors and the minors, it's difficult to see what will come out of this. The majors are threatening to walk away from the minors, which would be a disaster -- for everyone, but also the major leagues. They act like they will be fine without the minor leagues but they won't. It will likely be devastating and baseball will just keep regressing farther and farther behind football and basketball in terms of relevance.

One of the questions that I've had since this news broke is how will this potential split affect minor league baseball cards?

I'm sure since Topps is very wrapped up in its Major League Baseball agreement, jumping every time MLB says "JUMP," that any split will probably lead to the demise of Pro Debut and Heritage Minors.

But I don't really consider those true minor league sets. My affection for minor league cards goes back to the team-issued sets of the '70s and early '80s -- usually produced by TCMA -- and then in later years the sets that you can buy at the ballpark. Those ballpark modern sets are much fancier and tricked-out than minor league cards from 40 years ago, but they do have some of the minor league card spirit that I appreciate so much.

By that I mean, minor league sets do a lot better job of presenting the team concept than major league cards do, or at least Topps does with its minor league sets. Since the 1990s when Upper Deck and Fleer and others jumped into the minor league game, minor league sets moved toward top prospects and future stars. And when Bowman got involved, forget the team concept -- it was all about pre-rookie mojo.

That's not a minor league set to me. I want to see the full team. And the greatest example of a minor league team set deep dive is:

Trainers!!!!

Isn't that great?

Show me a major league team set with a trainer in it. Not only are minor league sets the only place where a trainer can shine, but it's also often the only place where coaches and mascots get any publicity. They are part of the team, too, you know!

I don't collect minor league cards as avidly as others do, including some fellow card bloggers. I can't show off the famed Keith Comstock crotch card or players posing inside shopping mall stores. But I did assemble 25 favorites from my collection.

I'm leaving out some of the stars during their minor league days. Yes, I have a minor league card of Stephen Strasburg and Cody Bellinger and Buster Posey. But the minors is more than future stars. I want the cards below to reflect that.
 

25. Larry Ward, Chattanooga Lookouts, 2014

Every team set should include a card of the team's broadcaster. Chattanooga had the good sense to know that. From what I've read on the back, Ward is a legend in the area and a member of a few halls of fame.

24. Stephen Mintz, Bakersfield Dodgers, 1991

Casually flipping a baseball from a seated position was all the rage among young baseball hopefuls in the late 1980s, thanks to Steve Avery's '89 Topps baseball card. Mintz is a little behind the times but no less audacious in implying that he has this baseball thing all figured out.

Mintz played briefly with the Giants and Angels later in the decade but made his name in coaching, mostly in the Texas Rangers organization. In 2017 he was managing in Australia.

23. John Lindsey, Albuquerque Isotopes, 2010

John Lindsey's story was well-documented in 2010 as he finally was called up to the Dodgers after 16 years in the minor leagues. Imagine if he never received a call-up -- and received some 2011 major league cards -- and minor league sets didn't exist: More than 16 years in pro ball and not a single card.

22. Rojo Johnson, Round Rock Express, 2010

Make what you will about gimmicks like this, but minor league baseball has no problem admitting that what it offers is just a game. And games should have wacky stuff like comedian Will Ferrell pretending he's a Venezuelan pitcher who served prison time for smuggling reptiles.

21. Terry Wells, Oklahoma City 89ers, 1991

I just love goggles on baseball cards. I don't suppose we'll ever see eye wear like this again.

20. Mike Moustakas, Omaha Storm Chasers, 2011

I've omitted some of the big stars from this countdown but I did have to include a few because part of the appeal to owning minor league cards and sets is going back and seeing who became established major leaguers. Sometimes you forget that you even had a minor league card of the player.

19. Jody Hurst, Niagara Falls Rapids, 1989

Jody Hurst was one of the better players on the Niagara Falls team that I covered in 1989. He made it as high as Triple A for the Tigers. This was his first baseball card, I'm sure, and I wonder what he thought of his first card showing the ump calling a strike on him when he thought it was a ball and possibly ball four.

18. Chris Duncan, Syracuse Chiefs, 2010

This is one of Chris Duncan's final baseball cards. His final professional season came in 2010. The former major leaguer for the Cardinals, and son of former Orioles catcher and longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan, was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012 and passed away this past September. I've held onto this card tighter since I heard the news.

17. Yasiel Puig, Chattanooga Lookouts, 2013

Think back to the summer of 2013. Collectors were clamoring for Yasiel Puig cards but almost none existed. They were looking to Bowman and Panini with pleading eyes. Everyone ignores the minor league cards. Chattanooga was creating one that very year and it's every bit as good as anything Panini's made.

16. Ron Washington and Bob Apodaca, Tidewater Tides, 1991

Two guys who were playing in the majors when I was a kid are in their early days as coaches on this card. It's a whole lot of fun.

15. Orlando Merced, Buffalo Bisons, 1990

Some baseball players are virtually ignored in the majors but reach legendary status in the minors. I followed the Buffalo Bisons quite a bit from the late 1980s to early '90s and players like Orlando Merced and Joe DeSa and Benny Distefano and Orestes Destrade were Buffalo heroes. Cards like this help me remember those days.

14. Max Muncy, Oklahoma City Dodgers, 2017

During 2017 and most of 2018 when Topps refused to create a Dodger card of Max Muncy, this was the card that helped me sleep at night. It was the only cardboard connection to Muncy and the Dodgers. I was outraged, but at least the minors knew he was worth featuring.

13. Mike Mussina, Rochester Red Wings, 1991

Another great aspect of minor league cards is sometimes notable players -- Hall of Fame players -- show up in wacky, unfamiliar uniforms. I was never a fan of the teams Mussina played for -- wasn't crazy about the Orioles, definitely didn't like the Yankees. Seeing Mussina in red, a color neither of those other teams would get near, is more pleasant.

12. Jeff Nelson, Bakersfield Dodgers, 1986

As a team collector, I am obsessed with obtaining cards of players in Dodger uniforms. But often, Dodgers draft choices never end up in a Dodger uniform. That becomes painful when that player winds up an established major league player with another team. Once in awhile you get lucky and a minor league set produces a card of a former Mariner and Yankee as a Dodger.

11. Mike Piazza, San Antonio Missions, 1992

By the early '90s, minor league cards had gone big-time. I consider this the end of the innocent age of minor league cards. Yes, it's cool to have a minor league card of such an impressive player like Mike Piazza.

But I don't know if we need stuff like this with minor league cards.

10. Jim Deshaies, Columbus Clippers, 1985

Jim Deshaies remains one of the nicest major leaguers I've ever met and looking at this card, it's difficult to believe he averaged eight strikeouts per nine innings his rookie year. This is a reminder that you don't have to look terrorizing to do well in the majors. It's also a reminder that Deshaies escaped Yankees clutches so I could admire him throughout his playing and broadcasting career.

9. Rick and Jan Bach, Clinton Dodgers, 1978

With very few exceptions, I can say that I don't care whether I see an owner or GM on a baseball card. This is one of those exceptions. I still don't know the story of Rick and Jan but that's the kind of mystery you just can't find in major league cards.

8. Pedro Martinez, San Antonio Missions, 1991

Pedro Martinez is one of my all-time favorite baseball players. I just love getting cards of him as Baby Pedro, toiling in the Dodgers' farm system.

7. John Doherty, Niagara Falls Rapids, 1989

Out of all of the players on that Niagara Falls team that I covered, John Doherty was the first to reach the major leagues and also the one that made the biggest impact. He debuted with Detroit in 1992 and won 14 games for them in 1993. He was a hoot to interview, too.

6. Moises Alou, Watertown Pirates, 1986

How thrilled am I to see future Expo and Cub Moises Alou posing on a field that is right down the road from here? Well, the card is No. 6 on the list.

5. Tom Badcock, Waterbury Dodgers, 1975

Among the earliest of TCMA minor league sets, the company had already reached a high point with card of someone named Tom Badcock.

4. Mike Scioscia, Albuquerque Dukes, 1979

When a player becomes a manager, you get to see on cardboard a human being age from young adulthood to middle age and beyond. (Well, you did before managers were scrapped from baseball cards). When that same player is also featured on a minor league card, that arc grows ever wider. The 61-year-old former manager is 20 years old on this card.

3. Willie Davis, Spokane Indians, 1960

This might be my oldest minor league card, but I very well could have something older. I don't keep track of my minor league cards as much as I should. But I do know that anything older would have to work very hard to beat the impact that Willie Davis is making here.

2. Sal Maglie Stadium, Niagara Falls Rapids, 1989

I hope you knew this was going to show up. How connected am I to minor league baseball? I'm in this photo!!! Top that, major league cards!

1. Dave Stewart, Albuquerque Dukes, 1980

The moment that sparked this post -- aside from the major league/minor league bickering -- was a tweet from the SABR baseball card site asking people to respond with their favorite minor league card. I responded with this one.

It is one of my single most favorite cards, regardless of being a major league or minor league card. There are so many elements I love. I could make another list of 25 of just those elements.

As much as I love major league baseball, the minors seem more real to me, both because it's easier for me to visit and also because it's not making a big deal about itself like the majors does, where it's constantly trying to convince you that everyone who puts on a major league uniform is super human.

Baseball, for me is a regular game for regular people played on lazy summer days amid modest surroundings on no-frills playing surfaces in front of only the spectators who care the most.

If the majors wants to take that away, it will lose many of the most dedicated fans they have, traded for whatever their looking for -- the trendy, the tastemakers, whoever the hell sits courtside at NBA games, I don't know, but it's not for me.

Here's to ya, minor leagues for knowing what baseball is really about.

And for producing some pretty great, no-frills baseball cards.