Random Ray - 1995 Pinnacle

This is THE actual Pinnacle set from 1995. There were so many of the them in the mid to late 1990s. I pick on the overproduction of Pinnacle frequently, but I really like this card. The gold baseball seam on the bottom of the card is a nice touch. The gold circle logo is nice too, even if Pinnacle would later reuse the same design element on their 1995 Score Summit cards.  

Repeating design elements is bound to happen when you make 25 different baseball card products every year.  Not really that many, I think.  

The picture is great with Ray interacting with the fans at Shea Stadium. Was Ray Lankford fan friendly?  I am not sure. I don't do anything with in-person autographs and I have never tried to track down Ray Lankford to sign anything. Fan interactions make great cards. I like that the front row is filled with Cardinals fans and some random guy on the end in a blue shirt.  

I would also like to point out the blue road hat and batting jersey. Why do the Cardinals ever wear red on the road is beyond me. I know, I say this every other week.  

Back of the card.  

I like the repeated seam pattern on the bottom of the card, but I wish they had not cluttered it up.  The stats are fine, but how many logos do they need to squeeze onto the bottom of the card?  Do they need to be that size?  There is a Pinnacle wordmark and a Pinnacle logo?  

The two color photos are nice, but for me the highlight is the line, "A thinking man's hitter with a sure eye and great patience at the plate" in the write up.  I am not sure that's a really accurate description of Ray Lankford as a hitter.  He was actually pretty simple hitter.  If you had to throw him a fastball, that was bad.  If the fastball was low in the strike zone, that was really bad.