Cards I Love Part 3: 1991 Stadium Club Members Only Ray Lankford

What is the best thing you have ever seen in person at a baseball game?  I have a short list.  One of the games at the top of my list was the September 15th game between the Mets and Cardinals in 1991.  What happened? 

Here is my scorecard. 

Pretty hard to read in the picture, but the correct answer is that Ray Lankford hit for the cycle.  He became the first Cardinals rookie to hit for the cycle in more than 70 years.  Cliff Heathcote accomplished the feat for the 1918 Cardinals, but did so in an 18 inning game.  Ray only needed the usual 9 innings. 

Somehow most of the card companies managed not to make a highlight of Lankford's cycle.  Topps did put one into their Members Only set.  It was a mail-in set, and I did not actually get one at the time of the cards release.  In fact, it took me a few years to run across one in a dime box.  The front of the card is not really all that eye catching, and I am sure that I passed this card over a few dozen times before finally parting with some pocket change to buy one.  

The front of the card does not even indicate that it was created for any particular event, or highlight.  It just looks like an ordinary Stadium Club card.  Flip the card over.  The back has no stats, only a write up about the cycle game, which is what makes this card a favorite of mine.  

I wish the write up on the back of the card spent a little more time focused on the game, but it is nice that the card was even created.  Especially considering the Cardinals were not a very good team, Ray Lankford was not very well known at the time, it is sort of surprising that this card was made at all.  A nice card to remember a great game.