Here is the card, which I blogged about last year.
Ray Lankford was not on the 1992 National League All-Star team, but somehow managed to get a card in the 1992 All-Star Game FanFest set, which was produced by Upper Deck.
Here is the front of the card.
I like the picture on the front of the card with Lankford taking a swing in his road uniform at Wrigley Field. I miss the days when the Cardinals would wear the blue hats and batting helmets on the road. The player in the background is second baseman Luis Alicea. Trying to track the picture to a specific game, Lankford and Alicea only hit together in a game at Wrigley Field once in 1991, which took place on October 5th.
The design is decent. It's a FanFest card, so it's going to include the All-Star logo. The pinstripes at the bottom are not my favorite, but this was the year the Padres switch to blue and orange pinstriped uniforms. It's a crime the Padres stopped wearing brown.
Back of the card.
Upper Deck included a nice summary of Ray Lankford's Minor League career, along with some highlights from his rookie season. I like that they mention his cycle game at the bottom of the card. Upper Deck always did a good job with player write-ups, so not surprised by the quality here.
Overall, I really like this card. Still feels really odd that young Ray Lankford was not in All-Star Games, but appeared in a bunch of All-Star sets. Prime of his career Ray Lankford was in the All-Star Game and there are almost no cards to recognize the accomplishment.
Seems like it should be on a baseball card.
How were you able to tell that it's Wrigley Field? To the uninformed (i.e. me), it looks like it could be anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe brick wall in the background is Wrigley Field. If this were a newer card, it might be a little harder to figure out, but not in the 1980s. The NL East teams all had concrete bowl stadiums outside of the Cubs.
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