Random Ray- 2023 Donruss

I am surprised to be here writing about a brand new Ray Lankford card from a Donruss set.  

I thought Ray might get a Topps Archives card at some point, but Donruss?  

Here is the card.  

The front is really busy, but it does a great job of distracting me from the fact that the Cardinals logo has been airbrushed off the front of Ray's jersey and hat on the front of this card. The photo is obviously from Wrigley Field and was taken during the 2004 season, as Lankford is wearing 12 on his uniform. He wore 16 the rest of his career, but Reggie Sanders was wearing 16 for the Cardinals in 2004.  

Ray Lankford was a bench player in 2004, so I thought I might be able to narrow the photograph down to a single game. However, the 2004 Chicago Cubs had zero left-handed starting pitchers, so Ray played a lot of games against the Cubs that season. Many of those games were day games at Wrigley Field.  

Back of the card.  

A little less busy than the front of the card and I like the green color.  

The write-up on this card is also really nice. It would be really easy to write up something about one of Lankford's seasons from the late 1990s when he was batting behind Mark McGwire. He had some good stat lines, but I like that Donruss went with numbers from early in his career, little bit more challenging, and made a good connection with another player from St. Louis.  

Very well done, Panini.  

Excellent card.