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.

Random Ray - 1992 Pinnacle

Score was always one of my favorite late 1980s/early 1990s baseball card brands. When they introduced Pinnacle, their premium brand in 1992, did I rush out and buy these cards?  

No.   

These cards were $1.99 per pack and the regular Score cards were $0.50. I got so many more cards for my money by sticking to the non-premium brands of baseball cards. I did not do much with Pinnacle cards until I was an adult. The boxes have never been as cheap as other junk wax era products, because there are some sweet autographs of Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio. Never mind the fact that the odds of pulling one of those cards is steeper than winning the Powerball.

Here is the Lankford.  

I like the overall design with the black border. It would be nice if the picture were a little larger and the border were thinner, but I can live with it as is. 

Many of the cards in this Pinnacle set have nice action shots, including this Lankford. Being a card from early in his career, I like that his jersey is dirty on in the picture. Lankford was a big stolen base/speed threat the first few years he played, but slowed down as he moved into the middle of the lineup. His knees weren't the best at the end of his career either.  

The red color name bar stands out nicely with the black background. 

Back of the card.  

It's busy, but there is a lot to like here. I like the contrast with the dark background and the white writing over the top. The black and white back pops and it is easy to read the write-up on the side of the card and the stats. The transition over to the green name bar and accents is nice on the eyes. The center photo is not the best, but this looks like something from Spring Training media day, aka stock scoreboard photograph. 

I couldn't find his 1991 or 1992 team photo, but all the same energy as the photo below which graced Major League video boards whenever Lankford took an at-bat in 1998.  

 

Speaking of which, the person who did the write-up actually knew something about the Cardinals and Ray Lankford. Although, the team really let Vince Coleman leave as a free agent, because their owner, one of the August Busch kids, was cheap. Same with McGee, but they traded him before he became a free agent. That stat line is incredible with nearly double-digits in all the extra base categories and nearly 50 stolen bases.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 53 - Dmitri Young

This is a nice post about Dmitri Young.  He has had sort of a bad rap amongst Cardinals fans for awhile, but I really do not see what people have against the guy.  The man collects baseball cards and at one point Dmitri also had one of the most incredible baseball card collections out there before he cashed out 2.5 million dollars.

The Roberto Clemente rookie in his hand sold $400K alone, which is ridiculous, but if he got someone to pay that much good for Dmitri.

A little bit longer post today for my 1990s Cardinals post.  I like Dmitri even if Cardinals do not like always like him.  

Back to baseball.  The Cardinals have finished in last place once over the last 70 or 80 years.  It has not happened much, but I am not in the mood to go look it up at the moment.  The one time it has happened in modern baseball times was in 1990.  Whitey Herzog quit in the middle of the year, so did Terry Pendleton.  The team even traded long time fixture Willie McGee to the A's to bolster their playoff run.  Hot mess.

The Cardinals had the fourth overall pick and used it on 17 year old Oxnard, California high schooler Dmitri Young.  He was on USA Today's All-American High School baseball team and had received a scholarship to baseball at Miami.

Dmitri had some big numbers at several of his stops along through the Cardinals Minor League system.  In his first full season in the Minors he hit .310 with 14 home runs and 36 doubles in A-Ball with the Springfield Cardinals.  Later, when he reached Triple A Louisville, he hit .333 with 15 home runs, 31 doubles, and even managed to swipe 16 bases.  Won the batting title.

Young was not without his controversies before reaching St. Louis.  Namely, he went after a fan in the stands while he was playing for the Arkansas Travelers, who were the Cardinals Double A team at the time of the incident.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Young spoke about this incident a few times during his career, while he would have handled the situation differently, it definitely hurt his relationship with the Cardinals and some fans in St. Louis.  I still collected a few of his Minor League cards.  Probably one of my first times every dealing with a product outside of the usual Major League Baseball products in the early 1990s was tracking down a few Dmitri Young cards  

I have a few favorites.  

I think the 1994 Upper Deck Minor League card is my favorite.  The most professional looking of all his Minor League cards in my opinion and I love the action shot.  Dmitri Young actually spent the majority of his time in the Minors playing third base and left field.  The Cardinals dabbled with him at first base in the Minors, but did not play him extensively at that position until his second stint at Triple A in 1996.  

I'm just throwing up this Classic Best card because the scan was handy, but Dmitri has a ton of these odd-ballish cards from 1991 and 1992.  He was in the lower Minors and on many of the cards it shows.  The Cardinals must have gone through some phase in the late 1990s where their Minor League teams all wore surplus polyester uniforms or repurposed shirseies from the team store.  

Didn't Pedro Guerrero retire sometime around 1991 or 1992?  

Would not shock me.  There are a few where Dmitri Young is just wearing a slugger bird logo shirt.  

The Cardinals ditched this logo in 1992, but it's all over their Minor League cards from that era.  Old man Busch was saving himself some money, also not putting anything on the team store on clearance.

Dmitri ended up getting called up by the Cardinals at the end of the 1996 season, just in time for the team's Postseason run.  They were not supposed to make the playoffs the first season that LaRussa managed the team, let alone get within a game of the World Series.  Dmitri did not contribute much during the final weeks of the season, nor during the first part of the National League playoffs.  However, he had a huge hit in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the Series against the defending World Series Champions.  

It was one of the few good moments from a frustrating National League Championship Series.  Card companies seemed to magically remember that Dmitri Young was around and was going to get playing time the following season.  Really the only season where he had a full slate of Cardinals cards turned out to be 1997.  

Best card.....

is from Collector's Choice because they gave him a highlights card for hitting that triple in the National League Championship Series.  The front picture is from the actual hit. The back of the card.....

very well done by Upper Deck.  

A few more.  Bowman gave him an autograph card.  He also had one in the Donruss Signature set, but the Bowman is a little bit nicer looking in my opinion....

It is also a little harder to find and will cost you $3 instead of $2.  That's without shipping.  A few more recognizable brands.  Donruss gave him a Rookie Diamond Kings.  Not the same as just a regular Diamond Kings card, but they were not making the Rated Rookie cards at this point.  

Almost all of the rest of the Dmitri Young cards from 1997 came from the Pinnacle brands.  I am pretty sure that had a photographer show up for infield/batting practice one day, and they came up with photos for every Dmitri Young card for the rest of that season.  

Pinnacle Inside......

Blue road practice jersey with a red turtleneck in Candlestick Park.  

Candlestick Park, Blue jersey, red turtleneck.  Look, Dmitri wears Nikes.  

New Pinnacle, was like New Coke in many ways, and apparently used recycled pictures that were just cropped a little differently the photos used for other card products.  

Cannot quite see his batting gloves in this picture.  

Finally a Fleer Ultra to close out 1997.  

Good picture of Dmitri playing first base, which is what he did most of the time during the 1997 until the end of July.  His first full season in the Majors was a disappointment.  He never did show any of the pop, nor drive in his swing that made him one of the better players in the Minor Leagues.  

The Cardinals needed offense and they ended up trading for A's first baseman Mark McGwire.  He was a free agent to be, but had spent the majority of his career playing for Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa and the front office was convinced they could sign him if they got him to play a few months in St. Louis.  

McGwire hit and ended up signing a contract with the Cardinals.  Dmitri Young was traded to the Reds for washed up reliever Jeff Brantley.  He still appeared on a few early 1998 releases as a member of the Cardinals.....

Dmitri seemed like a guy who needed a change of scenery early on with the Cardinals.  Not usually the way things go in St. Louis.  Add in the fact that the Cardinals got hosed on the trade by an in division rival, and I think that has added to some of the negativity around the legacy of Dmitri Young according to Cardinals fans.  

In a curious twist to the Cardinals trading him to the Reds during the 1997 off-season, he was actually selected by the Devil Rays during the expansion draft and traded back to the Reds.  He did not have many cards in 1998.  However, his first season in Cincinnati was a huge success that made him a regular in sets for most of his playing career.  

Dmitri played four years for the Reds and never hit less than .300 and had an on-base percentage of .353 during that four year span.  

He also spent five years with the Tigers and managed to still hit even though he was frequently the only quality bat in their lineup.  In 2003, he made the American League All-Star team, almost hit 30 home runs, and had a .909 OPS.  The Tigers lost 119 games.  It was statistically his best season as a professional player.  

He ended his career by playing the Nationals during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.  Dmitri was only 34 years old when he retired from baseball.  During his last two seasons with the Nationals he hit .310/.382/.469 and even made the National League All-Star team in 2007.  He became a fan favorite of sorts with the Nationals, who were in their early days in Washington.  Dmitri Young had talked about trying to make a comeback at one point, but he stayed retired.  

Very nice career overall.  I have always been convinced that if he stayed in St. Louis, he would have never had the career that he had playing for the Reds and Tigers.  While Cardinals fans can grade Dmitri Young rather harshly at times, but there are much worse things that can happen with high draft picks than having a 13 year career with a few All-Star Game appearances.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 46 - Tom Henke

You could argue that Tom Henke's 1995 season was the best performance by a Cardinals pitcher during the entire 1990s decade.  It was Anheuser Busch's last year owning the team, and to their credit, they actually tried to improve the team.  During the offseason they brought in Ken Hill and Danny Jackson, the two pitchers finished first and second in the National League in wins in 1994, along with St. Louis native Scott Cooper to help anchor the lineup.  

Henke was at the end of his career and wanted to play one more season.  The Jefferson City, Missouri native ended signing with the Cardinals so he could be close to home.  His signing would work out well for the Cardinals.  Danny Jackson, Ken Hill, and Scott Cooper would all be disastrous signings of varying degrees.  

Before signing with the Cardinals, Henke was best known as the closer for the Blue Jays from the 1980s through the early 1990s.  He helped the Blue Jays win the 1992 World Series against the Braves.  

Henke also played for the Rangers.  Briefly at the beginning of his career before he was claimed by the Blue Jays, and after the 1992 season when he left the Blue Jays as a free agent.  He had only 15 saves in 1994, due to time spent on the disabled list, but had 40 during the 1993 season.  

First, Henke picked up an important milestone in his career while playing his final season with the Cardinals.  He became the 7th player to reach 300 saves, there are 20 something now, and finished 1995 in 5th place all-time.  

I like that Bobby Cox is sitting in the dugout smiling at him at the end of video.  Cox managed the Blue Jays when Henke first joined the team in the mid 1980s.  No doubt he saw a few of the 300 plus saves.  

Henke finished 1995 with 36 saves, a 1.82 ERA, and was awarded the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year.  Pretty hard to do on a team that finished 20 games under .500.  After achieving one of his best seasons as Major Leaguer, Henke still decided to retire at the end of 1995.  He told Post Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel, "I've always admired guys who have gone out at the top of their game.  Sometimes you have to look at what's the most important thing in life.  I'd like to see my kids grow up"  

Let's get to some cards.  All of Henke's cards as a Cardinal are either from 1995 or 1996.  I am going to go my my favorite five cards.  

I love this card.  The head shot with the stadium in the background could be it's own card design, but this is not actually a consistent theme in the 1995 Pinnacle set.  I am not taking time to flip through the entire set, but a quick glance around COMC led me to believe that this is the only card designed like this in the set.  Very nice card.  

I like this 1996 Fleer card showing Henke with the weird arm angle.  Henke was the prototypical back end reliever who is really tall, threw really hard, and tried to blow a lot of batters away with really hard fastballs.  What Henke good though was that he had elements of finesse.  He dropped down side arm and had some nasty breaking pitches including a forkball.  

There are not a lot of Tom Henke cards from sets with nice finishes.  He played for some great Blue Jays teams, but I am not sure that you can really say that there was much that was really high end from that era.  He is in the 1993 Finest set.  This 1995 Flair card is one of his nicer Cardinals cards.  I like the headshot combined with the action shot in the background.  Gives a little different picture of Henke pitching from the Fleer card above. 

Always like the cards with Busch Stadium in the background.  I also like the full picture of Henke's uniform in this picture.  I am pretty sure that Henke and Eckersley, who replaced Henke as the team's closer, were the last two Cardinals players who wore the old style stirrups and socks, and did not wear their uniform baggy.  

Same shoes too.  

Last card.  

I love this card in the 1996 Topps set.  It is up there with the Pinnacle card at the top, more symbolic.  It was Henke's last Topps card, and I would like to think that someone at Topps made this card on purpose.  Kind of fitting to have a picture of Henke going through the line at the end of a game leaving the field as his last baseball card.  

Hall Of Fame Weekend Part Two: Ray Lankford

The Cardinals added three new members to their Hall of Fame yesterday afternoon when they inducted outfielders Ray Lankford and Vince Coleman, along with 1940s pitcher Harry Brecheen.  The team had a nice ceremony at the Ballpark Village, it's the building across the street in left field with the rooftop seating, which houses the team's Hall of Fame.  All of the living members of the Cardinals Hall of Fame were invited back......

Look at all of these legends! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LkcQnXeWS5

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 18, 2018

there was also a little ceremony on the field before the game last night against the Brewers.  

On to the baseball cards.  

The first half of my post featured Vince Coleman cards.  He is a little bit older than Ray Lankford and played for the Cardinals before the real explosion of brands and sets that started in the early parts of the 1990s.  It was not hard to come up with a few Vince Coleman cards with the Cardinals simply because there are some limitations on how many there are floating around out there.  Lankford is a different story though.  

While Ray Lankford was never a real star player with the average baseball card collector, he was the best player on the Cardinals for the majority of the 1990s, which means he showed up frequently.  In some of the high end products that started popping up as the decade went along, often with a limited checklist of 100 to 200 cards, Lankford was often one of the few Cardinals in the set.  

If you have followed along with this blog from the beginning, you probably have seen enough Lankford's with serial numbers or were somehow scarce.  There are plenty of other Lankford cards floating around, so I thought I could do a post with Ray Lankford base cards.  

I went through and pulled a favorite base case card from each year that he played for the Cardinals.  No Padres cards.  All of these cards are likely in some sort of nickel, dime, or quarter box at your local card shop.  Maybe if you live in St. Louis some of these are fifty cents.  

Maybe.  

1990 Upper Deck- Always been my go to Lankford rookie card.  It's not obvious from the front of the card that it was likely a Spring Training photo, but if you flip the card over he is wearing 57.  The Cardinals turned over a lot of their roster that year, but Lankford was not the prospect of note in that wave.  No cool prospect stamps on these cards, that sort of thing was reserved for Todd Zeile.  

Nice little blurb on the back of the card about the number of extra base hits he had while he was in the Minor Leagues.  Love the Double A statistics on the back of the card.  Those are pretty impressive.  

1991 Topps- This was the year that I really became a fan of Ray Lankford.  It was his first full season in the Majors, not necessarily his best year in retrospect, but you could see there was a lot of potential.  Lankford stole 44 bases, led the National League in triples, and had a few pretty notable moments during the season.  

This is a classic around St. Louis....

Apologies Phillies fans.  I know that's a tough play to watch. 

Lankford also pulled off a cycle during a September game against the Mets.  I went to this game and is probably the moment that hooked me on following Ray Lankford's career.  

I still have my ticket stub and program from this card.  I have thought about getting them framed to hang up in my baseball card room.  It has not happened yet, but someday soon.  

1992 Topps Gold- I know this is not technically a base card, but we are talking about a card that was in packs of 1992 Topps.  They are not hard to find and probably cost fifty cents on the high end of things.  I love the Topps All-Star Rookie cards.  Seems a little weird that he got one of these cards after he had been in the Majors for almost 200 games.  

1993 Kansas City Life/St. Louis Police Team Set- The Cardinals had some really nice team sets during the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I know there are a lot of collectors who like some of the borderless Cardinals team sets, but I still dig the blue border.  These were giveaways at baseball card night, not sure of the number that were available.  Seems like every card shop in St. Louis has a box of these in the store with some sort of sign pointing out that they are really really cheap.

1994 Upper Deck- Not sure where this picture was taken, maybe Mile High?  I really like the action shot of Lankford playing defense.  The vast majority of his cards seem to be batting, nice to see something different.  The Cardinals played the Reds on Opening Night in 1994.  Lankford was the first batter of the season.....

Pretty neat accomplishment.  

1995 Topps- Sunglasses, eye black, earrings, homemade arm sleeve.  I like the MLB Anniversary patch too.  

1996 Bazooka- I like baseball card that were taken in Busch Stadium II.  Surprised that the astroturf does not have heat emanating from it in waves.  1996 was a good year for Ray Lankford.  He made his first appearance in the playoffs after helping the team win the National League Central.  Lankford had a shoulder injury though, which limited his playing time in the Postseason.  

1997 Denny's Hologram- For whatever reason, I could think of several, Ray Lankford was only an All-Star once during his career.  All-Star voting is stupid.  He was also in the home run derby that year.  The Cardinals were horrible that season though, so I am not sure many noticed Lankford's great season.  Marquis Grissom made two All-Star Games.  Two.  Still, his stat sheet seems to indict that he set several career highs during the season.  Dante Bichette, Lance Johnson...managers picking players are ridiculous too.  

As for the card, I am not a fan of Denny's restaurants, but they gave out some nice baseball cards some years.  The 1997 set reminded me a lot of some of the old Hostess sets, or SportsFlix.  No consumption of Denny's took place in acquiring this baseball card.  

1998 Pinnacle- Not many cards out there celebrating Ray Lankford's appearance in the 1997 All-Star Game.  Almost certain that this is the only card that commemorates his participation in the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.  I am not saying that Ray came in last in the home run derby, but it was not a strong showing.  

Still, 1998 was one of the best seasons of his career.  He spent the whole season batting behind Mark McGwire while he was breaking the Major League home run record doing things like this.....  

1999 Stadium Club- The Cardinals do not change up their jerseys, rightfully so, and they do not wear a ton of different throwback jerseys either.  For a few years in the late 1990s though, the played a few times in Negro League uniforms.  I believe that they always used the St. Louis Stars uniforms.  Pretty sharp looking threads.  

2000 Fleer Ultra- I do not like the Cubs.  I do like pictures of players playing against the Cubs, especially if it involves having the ivy walls in the background.  This card is so green.  

2001 Topps Heritage- Last one for this post.  This was the beginning of a great baseball card product that is on the must have list every year now.  There were some really good looking Cardinals cards in this set, Lankford is no exception.  I like the orangish background on the card contrasted with the full color photo.  2001 was the end of the line for Lankford and Cardinals baseball cards in my collection.  He was traded to the Padres for Woody Williams during the 2001 season.  Lankford returned in 2004, but only had a card in the MLB Showdown set.  You know the card game.  Are those really even baseball cards?  I lean towards no.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 37 - Tom Pagnozzi

The Cardinals have had a pretty good string of defensive catchers dating all the way back to the 1980s.  Over the last 30 years, the Cardinals catchers have won 14 of the National League's Gold Glove Awards.  Many of those belong to Yadier Molina, but two of his predecessors also won a few Gold Gloves too.

Mike Matheny actually was the last starting catcher the team employed before Molina, and took home a few Gold Glove Awards with his first coming in 2000.  There were a few years in the late 1990s when the team cycled through a few different catchers, but for the majority of the decade the catching duties were handled by Tom Pagnozzi.

Pagnozzi was slow and pudgy, did not hit much some years, but he was always a very good defensive catcher.  He won a total of three Gold Gloves and has some great defensive stats to back up his awards.  Not just someone who won an award because of his reputation as a good defender.  There was a season he led the National League in defensive WAR, several where he finished near the top, several seasons with almost 50% of base runners caught, etc.

Pagnozzi also had some nice baseball cards over the years.  There is always some player on every team who always ends up with really nice cards in spite of the fact that they are not necessarily a name player.  You'd think that there were be some more time spent on Ozzie Smith or Mark McGwire, or possibly we could get good cards of the majority of players.

Maybe.

I am going to share more than the usual three cards for this post.  The good Pagnozzi cards show him playing defense, but my favorite card of the former Cardinals catcher has to be his 1995 Pinnacle card where he is arguing with an umpire......

There are not a ton of cards made with players and umpires arguing.  The card also has a really old picture on the front.  Pagnozzi is clearly wearing one of the polyster uniforms that the Cardinals wore in the 1980s and early 1990s.  The team ditched these uniforms after the 1991 season.  Mind you, Pagnozzi actually came up with the Cardinals in the late 1980s and was Tony Pena's backup for several seasons.  Even played in the 1987 World Series, so this card has a picture that is potentially seven or eight years old from the time it was printed.  If I had a cool picture of a player arguing with an umpire I would throw it on a baseball card too, even if it was older.

A few nice Stadium Clubs.

This his 1996 card from that set.  Another photo that you do not see too often on baseball cards, catchers running down foul balls around the back stop and netting.  I am pretty sure that Pagnozzi caught this ball and is turning to check on a base runner.  The fans in the stands do not seem to be moving either, which would likely happen if the ball was over the netting.  The old guy in the Rockies hat is calling the batter out.  

This is his 1995 Stadium Club.  Nice photo of him throwing, guessing a bunt or something hit in front of the plate.  Good early 1990s Busch Stadium background too with the blue wall and astroturf.

Last Stadium Club.

Always fun to see a slow catcher get on base on a ball hit on the infield.  Pretty certain that the Giants first baseman, not Will Clark, has missed the ball here.  I also like that Pagnozzi is off the ground.  Does not seem like the type of guy who would have any sort of leaping ability, but here we are.....

I had fun finding these cards of Pagnozzi, so you are getting a few more.  

Favorite Topps card.  Again, kind of a unique picture you do not see often on a baseball card.  

Last base card.  

I don't even remember this card being made, and I have a ton of these Emotion XL cards.  Gritty is such a catcher word, or maybe a backup middle infielder.  Pagnozzi is definitely "gritty".   This was only a 200 card set, a little surprised that Fleer would even include Pagnozzi.  I'd tip my cap to your set designers for adding him to the checklist, but your company went bankrupt awhile ago.  

Last card.  If you had to own one Tom Pagnozzi card it should be this one.  There are some pretty nice Cardinals cards in the 1996 Leaf Signature Series autographs, along with several players who were only around the team for a short time.  Cards of Rick Honeycutt and Mike Gallego are in a Cardinals uniform in that set, but they are not really Cardinals players.  Brian Jordan, Mabry, and Pagnozzi are much better cards if you are truly looking for a Cardinals card.