The first half of Ray Lankford's career was spent with a Cardinals team that was low on talent and payroll. There were always some decent players around, but the team's overlord at Anheuser-Busch would never commit to adding players who actually made the team competitive. It was not quite as bad as the modern Pirates, likely because August Busch III was limited to a five year run before he sold the team in the winter of 1995.
The current Cardinals owner bought the team at that point. The Cardinals hired Tony LaRussa, signed Andy Benes and Ron Gant as free agents, and traded for half the Oakland A's roster minus Mark McGwire. They put the McGwire trade off for a year and a half, but ended up with Todd Stottlemyre, Mike Gallego, Dennis Eckersley, and Rick Honeycutt. I am sure I am leaving someone out.
It was great to have good players on the team. It also meant that there were finally Cardinals cards included in insert sets that required the team to have more than one player.
For example.......
Now, Ron Gant's time in St. Louis ended on a sour note, but things were good when he first got to town. He hit a bunch home runs and the Cardinals made it to the National League Championship Series in 1996. Gant and Lankford were easily the Cardinals best players that season, hence the 1997 Fleer Ultra Double Trouble card.
These were really easy to find inserts with a decent design. The letters across the top with the alternating colors are a little much, but it's a 1990s insert. You need some pizzaz and flair. Well, not too much. The odds are listed at 1 per 4 packs, or 6 per box. Most can be found for a dollar or two at most. There are flashier inserts to be had, but they don't feature Ray Lankford.
Back of the card.
I am going to ignore the Ron Gant side of the card.
On the Ray Lankford side, they should have put the last sentence first and dropped the word also.
This is the first time that I've seen one of these. I remember 1994-95 Fleer basketball DT's, but those cards just had two different pictures of the same player on the front. I think I like the baseball version better.
ReplyDeleteI think that these cards would lead themselves to basketball really well. Plenty of teams have two good players that would make a good card. Probably not a stretch to make a card for each team.
Deleteit's not in my Top 20 insert sets from the 90's, but I do like it. Mainly because Gwynn and Rickey are featured on the same card for the Padres.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw that card while I was flipping through this set to find this Lankford. I thought about finding away to squeeze it into the post, but ended up skipping it. Gwynn and Henderson are the best combo in the set. Lankford actually ended up playing with both in 2001 while he was on the Padres.
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