Cards I Love Part 22 - 1990 Upper Deck Ray Lankford

I have never tried to total up the number of Cardinals games I attended during high school and college, but at a minimum I probably went to a game nearly every weekend they were home between late May and August for eight years.  During that entire time, the Cardinals were good for exactly one year, which was 1996.  They went to the NLCS that season, and came within one game of the World Series.  

 

Name a Hall of Famer or good player from the 1990s who played in the National League, and there is a really good chance that I got to see them play a few times.  

The Cardinals had some name players, but the teams always had some sort of flaw.  The years McGwire was there were exciting, but the team did not have any pitching.  Early in the decade, the team was an odd group of cheap older players, young prospects that were always supposedly going to be the next big thing, and Ozzie Smith.  

Out of the group of young players, several went on to have decent careers, but Ray Lankford was the best of the group.  He hit for power, stole bases, and ran down balls in center.  Complete player.  He once ran over Darren Daulton to score the winning run in a game....

 

He also hit for the cycle, but I have already mentioned that in the last two weeks.  Moving on.  

I have shared several different Ray Lankford cards over the past for weeks on my thread of Cards That I Love.  Just like yesterday's Pujols post, my Ray Lankford collection had a starting point.  The first Lankford card that I remember in my collection was his 1990 Upper Deck.  

He was in a few other sets that year too, and those cards are in my collection, but I am betting this was the first.  I have a box in my card closet that has all sorts of serial numbered, short printed, and autographed Ray Lankford cards that I have found over the years.  The first card in the box is this 1990 Upper Deck.  It has been there for years.  I cannot remember when it was not the first Ray Lankford card in the box of Ray Lankford cards.  

Here is the back.  

I am never quite sure which way to turn these 1990 Upper Deck card backs.  The stats and blurb go one way, the picture goes another direction.  My favorite Upper Deck rookie card from this era (Griffey who?), and a card that I love having in my collection.