Most of us are familiar with the fantastic artwork of Diamond Kings and Topps Gallery. The artwork on these cards is not like those. Here are nine baseball cards from my collection that truly put the "odd" into "oddball".
1966 Weird-Ohs Baseball Cards #1 Doug Out (Produced by Fleer, the back informs us that Doug is 101 years old and has been sitting in the dugout for 99 of those years. He literally lives in the dugout as that's where his bed and all his personal belongings are. He's never played enough to be picked to do the razor blade commercials so he's grown his beard so he'll be ready when his big chance comes. Here he's depicted in a 75 inning game where he's been called in as a pinch runner. As you can see, all of his teammates are passed out. Here his manager is pointing out where first base is because Doug forgot.)
1983 Wacky At-Bats #87 Hot Dog Hamduster (Produced by Confex, these "Fun Stuff" cards have a "Wacky At-Bats" game you can play on the back. Mr. Hamduster's short bio informs us that a gang of steamed up players, fed up with his constant showing off, tied him up and tossed him into an abandoned mustard factory. Hence - "former shortstop".)
1985 Baseball Greats Caricatures #7 Mickey Mantle (Beckett doesn't acknowledge them but I have the complete set of 10 of these cards that feature some of the greatest players of all-time including, among others, Ted Williams, DiMaggio, Musial, Feller, Spahn and Mays. This one depicts The Mick.)
1988 Awesome All-Stars #28A Ted The Intimidator (This set of sticker cards featuring monsters and weirdos on the ball field was produced by Donruss. Each card comes in two variations, one with a bio and the other with a puzzle back. This one has the bio which reads, "No base has ever been stolen with Ted covering. He can literally intimidate a baserunner into running backwards around the bases. He plays baseball to support his toothpaste needs.")
1990 Sunkist Fun Fruits Wacky Players #7 Sneaky Pete (These caricature cards were issued in specially marked boxes of Sunkist Fun Fruits Wacky Players Assorted Real Fruit Snacks and drawn by MAD magazine artist Mort Drucker. There are also football and basketball sets but for some reason Beckett only recognizes the football set. The reverse informs us that Sneaky Pete can steal bases in the blink of an eye, leaving no traces and sometimes no bases. He studies voice projection (ARod?) in his spare time to force pitchers to throw to the wrong base. He once vanished completely while stealing third and reappeared crossing the plate. His 1989 season stats for 162 games shows that he stole second base 483 times, third base 320 times and home 189 times. An added stat of bases he never gave back is 593. Rickey Henderson, watch your back!)
1992 Baseball Enquirer #17 A father and son playing on a team (I have this complete 64 card set also produced by Confex/Fun Stuff. The backsides have a mock question and answer session with the unnamed featured player. Most all of the players in the set are recognizable. This one lives in my Ken Griffey Jr. collection although it doesn't mention his name anywhere on the card. The interview on the back refers to him playing with his Dad. He's holding a picture of his granddad who he wants his team to also sign.)
1992 Flopps #2 Wade Bugs (This five card set parodies MLB players Boggs, Bonds, Griffey Jr., Henderson and Lance Parrish. I keep this card in my Boggs collection. The reverse tells us that Wade was in such a hurry to play ball that he had ants in his pants as well as spiders, ticks and lice. Known as the "Slimey Slugger" he's also a great fielder and his trick for catching so many flies is not to shower.)
1993 Cardtoons #42 Greg Maddogs (I have this complete set of 115 unlicensed cards that also parody MLB players. Here's one from my Greg Maddux collection. The reverse of this card lists ten reasons to why so many dogs enjoy baseball. Some of them are that they like to take walks, many of the pitchers are south-
paws, the seasons last through the
dog days of summer, there are hot dogs in the stands
and on the field and no one minds if you chase the
cat-chers.)
2006 Hero Decks Playing Cards St. Louis Baseball Heroes #13D Stan Musial (These playing cards put out by Hero Decks come in 52-card decks each featuring a different city. When I found my first Boston set in a Borders bookstore in Bangor, Maine back in 2005, it came with a card for a free deck if I just paid the $4.99 shipping cost. I sent it in and ordered the New York Yankees set and it also came with a card for a free deck. This started a chain reaction and I picked up sets of Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland and Chicago and so on until I finally received a deck that didn't have the "free deck" card. They have updated their sets throughout the years replacing certain players, for example, Mookie Betts is in the current Boston set but not in the first Boston set issued back in 2005 or follow up sets I have from 2008 and 2013. You can still buy these as well as other sports and non-sports from their website although I've noticed some sets have disappeared, for example, no more Pittsburgh.)
![[Image: Ch4Mt.png]](http://i.imgur.com/Ch4Mt.png)
