Random Ray - 1990 Topps TV

At some point during the summer of 1990, Topps apparently sold cards via television commercials. My parents did not buy stuff off of television, so it probably did not matter that I never saw an advertisement for the Topps TV team sets. The commercials were only aired in a few select markets, as Topps only produced a set for the Cardinals, Cubs, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and the All-Star teams. 

I will not subject you to watch commercials from Topps, but lets just say they were not very appealing. 

Maybe I did see one, but I just do not remember it.  

It's a definite possibility. I am not sure that Topps truly appreciated the strong commercial competition in the St. Louis television market of my younger years. There were some great commercials that could have easily had national appeal.   

My favorites include.....

Dirt Cheap Liquor. They had a chicken in a bathing suit who used catch-phrase, "cheap, cheap, fun, fun" scattered in throughout the commercial. There was also a man in the ads (Fred) who added in lines like, "The more she drinks, the better you look" and "we are the home of the persecuted smoker".

There was also Becky Queen of Carpet and Wanda Princess of Tile. I do not remember the name of the store, but you knew you were going to get some per square foot prices on carpet and tile when these two came flying through the legs of the arch.

I am leaving off others, but the lineup of local St. Louis television commercials in the 1980s and 1990s is really deep and strong. 

Back to baseball cards.  

I found the 1990 Topps TV cards later in life and they are really nice cards for the time. They had a glossy finish and the checklist for the different team sets included the full Major League roster, along with a healthy number of prospects, and also the coaching staff.  The prospect and coach cards were a rarity for the time.  

Ray Lankford has a few 1990 cards, but he also made his Major League debut in late August just before the team traded away Willie McGee to the A's. He was likely on the 40-man roster throughout the season, so it is not all that surprising he snuck into a few different products. Willie McGee also appears in the set, so it is likely that Ray Lankford was originally included in the set as a prospect. In fact, many of the post-Whiteyball starters are included as prosepcts, scattered throughout with pictures from Spring Training. 

Beyond Lankford, the other young Cardinals players in the Topps TV set include Bernard Gilkey, Geronimo Pena, Todd Zeile, and Ken Hill. 

Here is the front of the Lankford card.  

I do not have a copy of the 1990 Cardinals media guide, but I bet you an Imos Pizza that Ray Lankford's entry has a cropped version of this photograph. This feels like a photo that was taken in 10 seconds while he was walking out to workout in Spring Training.  

Back of the card. 

Repeating the photo, but using it as the background behind the player stats is not working for me here. I would say that we should get a different picture than the front of the card, but I bet Topps did not have one for some of the younger players. 

The card number is also really strange. If they had put the 53 outside the yellow box it would look better, or they could have dropped the Topps logo and the phrase "in a series of 66" and been fine too. Not the best results for Topps, but they had a solid plan.