It’s fitting that Ray Lankford was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame over the weekend, because the last couple years have felt a lot like the 90s.
Today’s 20-something Cardinal fans had never lived through the joylessness of the last couple years. I’m not old enough to remember the barren 70s, but I grew up right through the really shitty 90s, when Ray Lankford was about all we had.
But Lankford wasn’t just significant because of the role he filled for fans my age. He was a bridge from the Whiteyball Cardinals of the 80s to the Cardinals dynasty of the 2000s.