I am old enough to remember........

 when Pacific made Spanish language baseball cards.  

I really miss that company, I was fortunate enough to find a really cool Pacific Ray Lankford card this past weekend that was missing from my collection. There aren't many that aren't 1/1s or serial numbered to something less than 25.  

This is a First Day Issue card from the 1999 Pacific Invincible set.  

The card is serial numbered out of /69 copies. That number is lower than the typical Pacific Opening Day parallel set print run, which ran in each of their products and typically to 99 serial numbered copies. Invincible was a little higher-end for Pacific. The circle on the card is translucent, the scan does not really do the card justice.  

Here is the back of the card......

Spanish language text at the top of the card with the translation on the bottom right-side. Again, the scan does not do much for the translucent circle. 

Holy $&%$, It's The Candy Convention Card!!!!!!

Two years ago, I posted a Ray Lankford card out of the 1991 Score All-Star FanFest Set. Included in the post was a story about a local card shop owner who tried to sell me a similar card that came from a Candy Convention in St. Louis. At the time, I passed on the Candy Convention card, which I later deeply regretted. It turns out the Candy Convention Ray Lankford card is pretty rare.  

Here is the FanFest card.  

Note the banner underneath the write-up, which identifies the card as a part of the "1991 Major League All-Star FanFest" set. This is a really common card, easy to find.  

Well, after posting the card, I received a comment from a reader who was also trying to track down a copy of a Candy Convention card of former Blue Jays player Ed Sprague. More comments followed indicating that they had found a copy of the Ray Lankford and a promise to forward the card on once the commenter received it from COMC.  

Well, a few weeks back I got a white envelope with a print out of the blogger comment section and note.....

and inside the note was a top loader with a baseball card........

Holy $&%$, It's The Candy Convention Card!!!!!! 

I cannot thank Derek enough for sending this card along to me! It's my current favorite baseball card and it will always have a prominent home in my collection of Ray Lankford cards.  

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless

It turns out that Ray Lankford had two autographs in Panini Flawless. I added one a few weeks back and won the other in an auction on Ebay last week. I was really excited to say the least. 

Here is the front of the card, which is from Panini's high end baseball product.  

Panini Flawless is roughly $1,500 for a box. Can you imagine pulling a $20-$30 autograph of Ray Lankford in a box that costs that much? Thank goodness other people are willing to spend the money to open these boxes and resell their cards on Ebay for a huge loss.  

I'm excited.  

Back of the card.  

There is no write up on the back, only a Certificate of Authenticity. Well, there is a giant "STL" in the middle of the card, which is something different. I actually don't miss the write up that much, but they should have made the Certificate of Authenticity a little larger.  

Random Ray - 2023 Panini Flawless Autograph

Ray Lankford became one of my favorite Cardinals players after watching him hit for the cycle against the Mets during his rookie season in 1991. Over the years, a few different baseball cards have referenced Ray's cycle game, but today's card might be my favorite of the group.  

This is from the high-end Panini Flawless release and from the autographed insert set "Flawless Achievements". Note the small banner under the autograph and serial numbering labeled, "Homers To Complete Rare Rookie Cycle".  I knew the second I saw this card that I needed a copy for my collection.  

Yes, it's a "high-end" Panini card without logos and the most expensive Ray Lankford card I have added to my collection in the past year.  It was still less expensive than plenty of other modern autographed cards, so some perspective on it being an expensive Lankford card.  I kind of dig the design on the card too.  

I like the color scheme on the back with the gold writing on a white background with red trim.  Panini also did a really good job with the write up on the back of the card describing his cycle and the rarity of the feat by players in their rookie season.  

Random Ray - 1993 Upper Deck Home Run Heroes

I am a huge fan of the 1993 Upper Deck set. Simple design, great photography, it might be my favorite Upper Deck product of all-time. If you have not checked out the 1993 Upper Deck set blog written by Night Owl, you are missing out.  

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

Wrigley always makes a great background for baseball cards. The ivy wall is the obvious answer, but the short brick wall behind home plate is also a classic landmark for those of us who are old enough to have watched day Cubs games on WGN in the summers. 

Beyond the background, I love the action shot of Ray Lankford hitting. He had a great left-handed swing and always hit well against the Cubbies. In fact, in 158 career games against the Cubs, Lankford had 23 home runs, 7 triples, 30 doubles, and 26 stolen bases. 

I loved the blue Cardinal hats in the 1993 card sets. The team stopped wearing them in the late 1960s and brought them back as their road hat in 1992 as part of their 100th Anniversary. The patch on Lankford's sleeve is also part of the 100th Anniversary. 

A closer look at the patch......

Back of the card.  

This is a really good write-up about Lankford, his skill as a player, and his potential to be a star when he was a younger player. The Cardinals were not very competitive during the early 1990s, so it's nice that someone at Upper Deck was aware of a good player on a team that was a perennial mediocre team at best.  

Random Ray: 1997 Bowman Chrome

The 1997 Bowman Chrome set is really underrated. It was the first Bowman Chrome set. I love the design and it's got a great checklist. There are rookie cards of players like Adrian Beltre, Lance Berkman, and Miguel Tejada. I am probably forgetting a few other players. There are also early cards of Roy Halladay, Nomar, and Jeter. What else do you want out of a Bowman product?  

There are also a handful of veteran cards, including Ray Lankford.  

Here is the front of the card.  

The Bowman base set and Chrome design varied in 1997. The Bowman base set had solid black borders while the Bowman Chrome product had stripes. Both are appealing and I like the contrast between the dark stripes or black border and the red inner border on the Cardinals cards. 

The Ray Lankford card has a nice action shot of him running the bases. Looks like he is trying to avoid being hit by the ball in between bases. The Cardinals have good looking uniforms. Not surprisingly, the red Budweiser sign in the background has been air brushed out.  

Back of the card.  

I love the Bowman card backs where it shows the player stats versus individual teams. The cards from the early 1990s had more stats, like hits and runs for the position players, but I still like this simplified version with the player picture on the right side of the card.  

That stat line against the Cubs is glorious. 

That stat line against the Braves is not so glorious.  

    

The player picture on the left is interesting in that Lankford is wearing a batting helmet without any ear flaps, which was against the rules at that point. The Cardinals still had Gary Gaetti and Ozzie Smith wearing the flapless batting helmets at this point, but they were grandfathered in because of age. Although the helmet is labeled "16" and clearly belongs to Ray. Must have been something he wore around during batting practice.  

Random Ray - 1994 Topps Gold

Last week, I spent some time sorting out some 1990s sets and ran across a stack of 1994 Topps Gold cards. These per-pack-parallels were so much better than the one-per-box Topps Gold cards that current populate the Topps flagship product. 

Let's take a look at the 1994 Topps Gold Ray Lankford card.  

 

The difference between the Topps Gold and base cards in the 1994 flagship set are simple. There is the logo on the top left corner of the card and the player name in the bottom left. On the base card, both are white, while they are Gold Foil on the Topps Gold card. Simple changes, but they make for a nice looking baseball card.  

I don't want to take away from this great looking Ray Lankford card, so I am not going to post a modern Topps Gold card, but if you have never seen one, the border of the card is gold foil. It's a bit much. 

Beyond the gold foil, I love the action photograph of Ray Lankford on the front of this card. Almost positive that this is in Wrigley based on the dark green background. I wish it were a little less blurry, but I cannot think of another mid 1990s baseball stadium with dark green walls and grass.  

Back of the card.  

Standard Topps baseball card stats and biographical information. I like the little photo on the side and the little write-up on the bottom. Any time you get a write-up that compares Ray Lankford to one of the all-time franchise greats, or a Hall of Famer, I am going to be a fan. Lou Brock and Ray Lankford sound good in the same sentence.  

I know this is one of the Topps least popular base sets of all-time, but I honestly don't mind. It's not the 1983 or 1984 Topps set, but it's also not 2001.  

Random Ray - 2023 Chronicles Zenith Ray Lankford Autograph

Another Ray Lankford autograph.

2023 has been incredible for the Ray Lankford collection.  

The latest Ray Lankford autograph comes from Chronicles, which is seven different baseball card sets in one pack of cards. You think I am joking, but I am not. Luckily, someone else pulled this card out of a pack and sold it on the internet.  

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

It's a sticker autograph, which is not my favorite, but it's Ray Lankford.  

There is also a picture of Ray Lankford batting on the front of the card, which is a positive.  

What is going on with the baseballs on the side of the card?  

I don't even care, because it's a Ray Lankford card.  

Here is the back of the card........

Nice write-up on Lankford's career, which is actually accurate on this card.  

The picture is fine, as are the lines on the side of the card.  

Whatever, just give me more Ray Lankford cards. You know I will buy it and post it online.  

Random Ray - 2023 Panini America's Pastime Autograph

There have now been three Ray Lankford autographs this calendar year.  

A fourth different Ray Lankford autograph is currently in the mail and should be here later this week.

Here is the latest from Panini's America's Pastime product. I do not know anything about these cards outside of the fact that there is a Ray Lankford autograph. It's actually a really nice card. Thick card stock, nice finishing touches on the front of the card including the autograph, which is on-card. Also love that Lankford signed his number 16.

 

The design is alright. We've got a giant US map covered in an American flag. Feels like something that came from stock photos. Could we get something more specific to the Cardinals or St. Louis? A toasted ravioli, a can of Budweiser, or a picture of the Arch? Feels like there is something more that could be done with this theme.  

The photo feels like it is from the late 1990s or early 2000s.  

The important thing is that there is a Ray Lankford autograph.

Here is the back......  

which talks about his 1991 season. Unfortunately there are a few errors here.

First, the cycle game facts are off. Lankford was not the first Cardinals rookie to hit for the cycle, just the first in a long time. Prior to Lankford, the last Cardinals cycle was Willie McGee against the Cubs in 1984. Cliff Heathcote hit for the cycle as a rookie for the Cardinals in 1918. We all remember that one.  

Ray Lankford also led the National League with 15 triples in 1991, not 13. His 15th triple of the year was his third hit during the cycle game.  

Lankford also only hit 9 home runs his rookie year, so that "power-speed" thing might have been a bit of an exaggeration.  His home run during the cycle game, the date is correct- it was at the end of the season, was only his 7th of the season. 

Hey, Panini got the centerfield thing right.  

Friday Five: Top Five Archives Autographs

Topps Archives base set is horrible. 

What is the point of releasing a Topps Heritage set every year, which borrows the design of a previous Topps set, when Archives does the same thing? 

Maybe the question should be why is Topps releasing Archives every year? 

Both products have some positives. I like the Heritage base set better than the Archives, but I like the autograph checklist of Archives much better. With the release of a new Topps Archives set this week, I thought I would take a look back at my five favorite Topps Archives autographs. The autographs after all are the only reason to purchase this annual Topps release.  

This was actually a challenging list to create. I could easily go Top 20 here and still make a good list. Narrowing the list down to my five favorites took some work.  

T5. 2020 Topps Archives Felix Jose 

Felix Jose is a symbolic choice here. I could have picked Joe McEwing or Edgar Renteria or George Hendrick, but I thought Felix was perfect for this post. I try to collect as many certified autographs of Cardinals players as possible and I never thought Felix Jose would be on that list. If you are not familiar with Felix, he came up in the late 1980s with the Oakland Athletics, but was traded to the Cardinals for Willie McGee. That's a tough act to follow in St. Louis and all Felix did was hit .305 with 40 doubles during his first season with the Cardinals. He was eventually traded to the Royals for Gregg Jefferies, but getting this card made me take a few minutes to look back at his career numbers on Baseball Reference and appreciate the time he spent with the Cardinals. Every once in awhile Topps gets something right, Felix Jose signing cards 25 years after he retired is incredible.  

T5. 2020 Topps Archives Tom Pagnozzi 

This is another symbolic choice. I could have gone with a low-key very good player from your favorite team too. Here is a trivia question. Between 1991 and 2020 how many of the National League Gold Gloves at catcher were won by Cardinals players? The answer is 15 or half of the Gold Gloves at one position. Molina won 9, Mike Matheny won 3, and this guy Tom Pagnozzi won the other 3.  Who remembers stuff like that? Topps Archives. Tom Pagnozzi also was the Game 7 starting catcher in the 1987 World Series and also caused Uber prospect Todd Zeile (sounds funny now) to move to third base.  He's not a Hall of Famer or anything, but still a really good player and I am happy to own his autograph.  

 

4. 2001 Topps Archives Mickey Lolich Autograph 

I started collecting the current Durham Bulls players the year that I moved to North Carolina. They have had plenty of top prospects on their roster over the past two decades and there has always been an abundance of modern autographs that has made them easy to collect. I did not start collecting the old former Bulls players until I started blogging about my cards, roughly a decade ago. The autographs are a little harder to find, but I was really happy to land this 2001 Topps Archives Lolich card. I loved the 2001 Archives set, which has a little different format than the current rendition of the set and a much better autograph checklist. However, those autographs are also largely off the secondary market at this point save for a few really common cards that were signed in huge numbers. Lolich is not one of those, making this my tough to find autograph on this list. Lolich also has a better Hall of Fame argument than most realize.  

3. 2012 Topps Archives Jose Oquendo 

Nicknamed "The Secret Weapon" you never knew where Jose Oquendo was going to play for the Cardinals when you watched one of their games in the late 1980s. He eventually settled into being the second baseman next to Ozzie Smith, but for several years he played all over the infield and outfield. Topps did something incredible with Oquendo's 2012 autograph by creating 9 different variations of the card, one for each position on the field. These cards were a project a few years back, but I lost track of it and stopped trying to track them down. Topps can be creative when they try. It's all about the effort.  

2. 2016 Topps Archives Robert Wuhl Autograph 

Topps has done several pop culture insert sets over the past decade within their Archives product. The 2016 Bull Durham movie cards were obviously my favorite. I never shelled out the money for a Tim Robbins or Kevin Costner autograph, but Robert Wuhl was in my price range. The long-time actor plays the Bulls pitching coach Larry Hockett in the movie and has some of my favorite lines in the movie, including his pep talk to the team while they are on the mound airing out all the drama that is occurring in their lives.  

Candlesticks always make a nice gift, let's get two.  

In fact, I have two copies of the card.  

1. 2013 Topps Archives Ray Lankford Autograph 

Ray Lankford last played for the Cardinals in 2004. During that entire season, the only card made of him was in MLB Showdown. No Topps, Fleer, Upper Deck, or Donruss cards at all.  Nobody made a card of him in 2005 either. It took almost another decade to get a brand new Ray Lankford card, which appeared in the 2013 Topps Archives autograph set. No base card. I was still really excited to see this card and pick up a copy for the collection.  

Random Ray - 2023 Immaculate Collection Autograph

I am not going to say a bad word about Panini for at least the next month on this space and my other social media sites based solely on the fact that they have now produced two different Ray Lankford autographed cards this year. It's true that they can no longer manufacture cards of current players, so I understand they are limited to retired player like Ray Lankford. However, they could have done something really mediocre like made a bunch of Todd Zeile autographs.

Nobody needs that.  

They really did a good job of making the best of the situation and choosing players who have some degree of popularity within their fan base. My Cardinals have Ray Lankford, Vince Coleman, and Jim Edmonds as the featured players and I can't say I know a Cardinals collector who would be disappointed to add another card of those three players. 

On to Ray.  

My latest Ray Lankford autograph is from their high-end Immaculate Collection. It's even better than the previous 2023 Lankford autograph I posted here a few weeks back from the same product. 

Here is the front of the card.  

I love the picture on the front of the card. The Cardinals switched to button up uniforms and blue road caps in 1992, so this is from early in Lankford's career. I believe the 1990 uniforms had an AAB patch on the sleeve to honor former owner Gussie Busch, which makes this a 1991 photograph. 

Ray had a pretty good 1991, topped off by hitting for the cycle against the Mets at the end of the year. 

As for the design of the card, it's fine. I like the red and gold color scheme, but honestly I am just excited that someone made a Ray Lankford autograph. This card could have purple dinosaurs dancing on rainbows and I would buy it in a second.  This one has a print run of just 10 copies.  

There were two of these listed on Ebay last week, including a Buy It Now for $62. I tried talking the Buy It Now seller down into the $20 range, but he would not budge. That's okay, because I won the second card in an auction for roughly $20. The $62 copy is still listed, it's going to be there for a while.  

Back of the card.  

Panini does a great job with their card backs. Great write-up. Ray Lankford, Stan Musial, Ken Boyer, and Albert Pujols. I like all four of those players I don't think I knew this fact before reading this card. Young Stan was fast and Ray Lankford had some big stolen base seasons early in his career, but I don't think of stolen bases and Albert Pujols or Ken Boyer. 

Great card.  

Random Ray - 1998 Stadium Club

I have posted almost every Stadium Club card of Ray Lankford, missing just a few. 

Here is the front of this week's random Ray Lankford card......

Nice action shot of Ray fielding a ball in the outfield. Not sure if this is a line drive or a tall hop off of the artificial turf shown in the picture. Either way, it's a nice, tightly cropped photo of the former Cardinals outfielder. There were not many teams playing on artificial turf that season, only the Pirates and Reds. However, I could not figure out when or where this game took place as the Cardinals played multiple day games against both teams.  

Back of the card. 

I love the effort here. The borderless, full color photo in the background with the stats over the top of the photo is a really good look. While the photo is the best thing here, I really like what Topps tried to do with the stat box. Before I get there, I want to go over my one negative, which is the fact that there are two little factoid boxes. There is the "Bottom Line" at the bottom of the card and then another little write-up above the stat box. I think that space could have been better used.  

I know, it's hard to read, and I am saying this as a person with really good eyesight.  Essentially, they use the quintessential back-of-the-card stats, home runs, RBIs, runs, hits, etc, and then add in the players ranking for that star within the Top 40 of all MLB players. 

For an underrated player like Ray Lankford, it really shows how good his numbers were playing for bad Cardinals teams. That's a lot of Top 40 stat finishes and if you squint your way to read all the numbers, there are a bunch of numbers within the Top 10. On the last line, which is 1997, Lankford finished in the Top 10 in home runs, walks, and on-base percentage.  In 1996, he was top 10 in walks, stolen bases, and triples. 

Really good idea, they just needed to crank up the font size a few notches.  

As a side note, the fact box mentions that Ray Lankford was closing in on the all-time home run record at Busch Stadium II. Lankford ended up with the record with 123 home runs, At the time he was traded to the Padres in 2001, Ray had 119 Busch Stadium home runs, but Mark McGwire would tie him late that season. Ray Lankford broke the tie and set the Busch Stadium home run record as a member of the San Diego Padres in 2002.  

The tie-breaking home run was hit off of Woody Williams who was traded to the Cardinals for Ray Lankford. 

The Best Mail Day of 2023

I was excited to see Ray Lankford show up in the 2023 Donruss set. I picked up the base card and several of the parallels. I was happy and content, but then Panini released their Immaculate Collection product. It included Ray Lankford autographs.  

I bought one last week and it showed up in my mailbox this afternoon.  

Sticker autograph and I do not care.  

This is a really good write-up on the back of the card. Someone actually put some time and effort to look up those statistics and write them into a few short sentences. Well done, Panini.  

Random Ray - 1996 Topps Chrome Refractor

I have been writing these Ray Lankford post for the better part of a year and have not really dipped into the shiny part of the collection. Let's put the start date on shiny at 1993 with the first Topps Finest set and there is plenty of overlap between Ray Lankford's career and the advent of shiny baseball cards. Sure, current players have way more than players from the 1990s, but still a good variety to show off.  

I am going to start off with one of my favorites, the very shiny 1996 Topps Chrome Refractor.  

Just an incredible card. This was the very first Topps Chrome set. It's amazing how well this set has aged given that the 1996 Topps set is hit garbage. The 1996 Topps Chrome set has some of the same shortcomings, namely there is no good rookie card. Still, this is one of those years where the Chrome cards look much better than the standard flagship cards.  

The best part of this card for me? I love the way the red on his uniform and batting gloves pop on this card. The red does not look that brilliant on the regular Topps card. 

Back of the card.  

Not a huge fan of these card backs. 

The biggest problem for me is that Topps shrunk the stat box for a blah action photo and a green home plate. What's the deal with the blue horizontal pinstripes? Seems really random.  

Oh, how many different fonts did they use on the back of the card?  

I could go on, but I will say something nice. Topps did a really good job with the write-ups on the back of their 1996 Topps cards. It takes effort to find and write about a good week by a player on a last place team (the 1995 Cardinals were horrible) and tie their season accomplishments to two players who appeared for the team several decades prior. 

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 - 1999 Topps Gallery

I was always a big fan of the Topps Gallery cards in the 1990s. 

Good looking set with nice inserts.  

Here is the front of the 1999 Topps Gallery Ray Lankford card.  

The texture on the front of the card is really neat, but unfortunately lost on the scan. It's printed on card stock, but has sort of a canvas feel to it. Definitely a unique feel to the card when you pick it up. Previous renditions of this product had a frame design around the edge of the card, which allowed for a bigger player picture, but I like the white edges with the hazy, colored border around the photo.  

The base cards all had an action picture. Here we have Lankford looking in towards home plate as he is running. It's likely a hit and run, but we will get that on the back of the card. Ray had good speed until the end of his career when his knees got a little gimpy. Even after he moved to left field and stopped stealing bases, Ray was still a good base runner.  

Definitely an old cookie cutter stadium here with the astroturf and baggie, likely covering up football seating, behind the outfield wall. Leaning Philadelphia. 

Back of the card.  

I am not big on busy card backs, but this one actually works for me.  

I like the picture at the top. Easily the highlight of the back. A little curious as to what is going on in the picture. Guessing that Ray is looking for a ball mark on the bat. Something you don't see everyday on a baseball card.

I also love the stat breakdown in the middle where you can see the player performance by month. Something different, impressed that they had on-base percentage on a baseball card pre-Moneyball.  Ray had a really good September in 1998.   

The bottom section is fine. I think I mentioned on a previous Random Ray post that the default Topps comment for the back of a Ray Lankford card was that he played football at a junior college and rushed for 1,000 yards. The Carl Nichols factoid appears frequently too, but he was a catcher, not an outfielder. Guess the editor was having an off day. I actually wish they had skipped this information and gone into more detail about the front picture under the Front Photo heading.  

Clearly, he's running on a hit and run. Who was hitting and where were the playing? Did they win? It was 1998, so McGwire probably hit a home run and they lost.  

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.  

Around The Card Room, Take 6

 I think I posted this item on here seven or eight years ago as an item I picked up from Topps Vault.  

I am not sure if the Topps Vault is still a store on Ebay, but it was more or less where Topps dumped out all of their odds and ends. I am certain that 90% of the listings on the Topps Vault were blank back versions of sports cards that were released between 1995 and 2015 along with tons of photo proofs.  

I loved the Topps Vault and bought all kinds of stuff off of there. Most of it was 1990s Cardinals and current Durham Bulls players.  

It always surprised me how cheap some of the items on the Topps Vault would end up selling for considering they were very unique. 

My favorite item by far is my Topps baseball card contract with Ray Lankford.

I framed the contract and have it hanging my card room next to my card closet.

Here is a better scan of the contract without the glare off the glass.  

Note the date of the contract ends on January 31st, 2003. Lankford played the 2004 season with the Cardinals as a left-handed bat off the bench, but never had a baseball card produced during that season. It was always kind of surprising that a veteran player like Lankford was excluded from the Topps set in 2004 and 2005, especially given how good the Cardinals were during that time. 

Guessing this was Ray Lankford's last baseball card contract with Topps.