From now until the Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2010 is announced, The Hall is going to be breaking down each candidate. Some write ups will be lengthy…some will be the opposite. Some will be brand new pieces…some will be re-hashes of previous pieces.
You know, there used to be a time when I routinely confused Ray Lankford with Brian Jordan and Bernard Gilkey. But…I had a system as to how I could tell them apart.
In 1993, I met Gilkey at the Quincy Mall in Quincy, Illinois. Jordan, a two-sport star, was a former cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons.
And Lankford…well, he was the other one.
All kidding aside, Lankford had a pretty formidable career compiling five seasons of 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases with the Cardinals. No other player in St. Louis franchise history was able to accomplish the feat more than once.
At the time of his retirement, Lankford was third all-time (he is now fifth) on the Cardinals home run list and when the doors closed at Busch Stadium a couple of years ago…he held the distinction of having hit the most balls out of its storied yard.
A good player…most certainly.
A great Cardinal…absolutely.
A Hall of Famer…sorry, Ray.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
