2012 Topps Archives Ray Lankford Autograph

One of the first players I ever started collecting was Ray Lankford.  A few weeks back I documented my Top 10 Favorite Cards of him.  The last Ray Lankford cards were produced in 2002 during his last season with the Padres.  He would sit out the 2003 season and return to the Cardinals for the 2004 National League Championship.  However, despite playing in 81 games that season and taking over two-hundred at-bats Ray Lankford did not have a single card made that year.  John Mabry played in roughly the same amount of games, but somehow he made an appearance as a Cardinal in the 2005 Fleer set.

So, it has now been 10 years since my favorite player has appeared in a baseball card set.  This is pretty ridiculous given the fact that he was basically the best player on the Cardinals for the majority of the 1990's and ranks highly in several categories among the Cardinals all-time offensive leaders.   A quick check of Baseball Reference shows that Ray Lankford's similar batter during his career was Kirk Gibson.  Other names on the list include Raul Mondesi, Larry Doby, and Eric Davis. While he his career has one less dramatic World Series home run than Gibson, he is probably not seen by many fans as being in the Hall of Good Category.

I was excited to see this card released with the 2012 Topps Archives set.

2012 Topps Archives Ray Lankford Autograph