Random Ray - 1998 Pinnacle Jumbo

Ray Lankford was once in the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.  

The video is kind of grainy and Chris Berman spent the majority of Lankford's time batting talking about Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr, all of which reminds me that Chris Berman is in the same ballpark as Matt Lauer. 

Here is a photo of Ray in the 1997 Home Run Derby at Jacobs Field. Errr Progressive Field.  

Ray did not win the Home Run Derby, but he did get a Pinnacle card commemorating his appearance in the annual All-Star Game event that happens to be a personal favorite. For this post, I am actually using the Jumbo version of the card. It's larger than the regular card (of course) and it also has a different card number. The regular Pinnacle Lankford card is 195 in the set, the Jumbo card is 14.  

Here is the front of the card......

Let's start with the obvious. "Goin Jake" is a great subset name for this group of All-Star Game cards.  

The picture of Lankford in the foreground is from the Home Run Derby. Nice action shot of Ray taking a swing during the derby. I kind of dig the All-Star Game batting practice jerseys with the National League label going across the front with the All-Star Game logo underneath and the team logo on the sleeve. I thought the Cardinals had kicked the circle logo with the Redbird logo to the curb at this point, but apparently not.  

The background is the interesting part of this card. I assumed that this picture was from the All-Star Game introductions, but there are way too many players wearing jackets and uniforms that match. Watching the player introductions from that All-Star Game, the players did not wear jackets and the players still wore their team uniforms. No goofy Nike All-Star Game jerseys.  

I would guess that the background picture is from something like the Indians Opening Day Game or maybe a playoff game. Some other event that featured player introductions.   

Back of the card.  

Nice write-up on the back for Lankford. I am dumbfounded how it took Ray Lankford until 1997 to make an All-Star team. The Cardinals were terrible in the 1990s, like one player at the All-Star Game bad, but Ray Lankford was typically their best player. How did it take him this long to make it? 

A few minutes of research shows that people were still voting Ozzie Smith on the All-Star team even after his throwing arm fell off at the end of his career.  

I like that we also get a second photo from the Home Run Derby. 

Overall, a really nice card celebrating one of the best moments of Ray Lankford's career.