Leaf Preferred was one of the thousands of baseball card products that Donruss made in the mid-1990s. If you bought baseball cards back in the mid 1990s, this set came with one steel card in each pack. You read that right, steel card. The packs weighed a lot and full boxes could have been used as a barbel. I will do the steel card another week. For now, I am going to do the base card.
Did anyone really care about the base cards in Leaf Preferred?
I think everyone I know who bought a pack of these cards considered them an after thought. The steel cards were the real attraction. Still, I like the photo that Donruss used on the Ray Lankford card. It's something different and unique.
This would be a great card to use in a caption contest. What is happening in this picture? Maybe the catcher said something funny. Maybe Ray just missed his pitch. Maybe something funny happened in the stands? Maybe nothing funny happened at all and Ray fouled a pitch off his foot? Your guess is as good as mine. I just like that the picture shows something different than the typical action shot.
The card design looks like every other Donruss card product from the mid 1990s.
I also like that the picture was taken in Wrigley. I think I mention it once a week, but that stadium is a great backdrop for baseball cards.
Back of the card.
Another action photo. I think this is also in Wrigley, but it's hard to be sure since it is blurry, but the long sleeve shirt under his jersey looks similar to the one on the front of the card. Seems like a good possibility that the two pictures were taken during the same game.
The stats are really basic. A little disappointed that stolen bases are not one of the stats. Ray had a 20-20 season in 1995. Pretty good numbers considering he missed a month of the season and the 1995 Cardinals were a bottom 5 team in the league.
I mainly remember this product for the metal cards that came in packs, but that candid shot of Lankford is cool. I was thinking he fouled the ball off his foot.
ReplyDeleteThis whole set was missable outside of the metal cards, just really like the photo on the Lankford. Need to put the metal card on a post in the near future.
DeleteI can only imagine how few of the base cards be around if this set were to be released now. I picture all of the metal cards being immediately sent off for grading, and all of the base cards ending up in the garbage.
ReplyDeleteProbably, but when the cards are metal what are the chances that they aren't going to have some really high grade? I would guess they all grade 9 at worst.
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