RetroSimba

Like a pinball careening across a slick surface, Ray Lankford dived, slid and sped his way into and around the bases, culminating his hyperactive journey with a colossal crash.

On April 21, 1991, Lankford scored the winning run for the Cardinals against the Phillies when he raced from second base to the plate on an infield out, barreling into Darren Daulton and jarring the ball loose from the mitt of the dazed catcher.

The play, reminiscent of the Gashouse Gang Cardinals of the 1930s, became the signature of Lankford’s career.

Hit and run

Lankford brought a football player’s attitude to the Cardinals, who chose him in the third round of the 1987 amateur draft. In addition to playing baseball, he was a starting running back in high school and at Modesto Junior College in California.

An outfielder and left-handed batter, Lankford was in his fourth season in the minors when he got called up to the Cardinals in August 1990. He became their center fielder the following season.

For the Phillies vs. Cardinals game on Sunday afternoon, April 21, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Lankford batted third and had a single and a double in two of his first three plate appearances.

In the seventh, with the Phillies ahead, 6-1, Lankford ignited a comeback with a run-scoring triple against ex-Cardinals reliever Joe Boever. The Cardinals scored four times in the seventh and once in the ninth, tying the score at 6-6.

Game of inches

With one out and none on in the 10th, Lankford faced Phillies closer Mitch Williams, a left-hander. When the count got to 2-and-2, Williams threw a slider he thought was strike three, but umpire Randy Marsh disagreed. Lankford drew a walk on the next pitch.

Felix Jose was up next, but Williams was focused on Lankford. He made a throw to first that “appeared to have Lankford picked off,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“We seemed to have him cold,” Phillies manager Nick Leyva said.

Lankford, though, eluded the tag of first baseman John Kruk and got back to the bag safely. “He just slid around me,” Kruk told the Philadelphia Daily News.

Given a reprieve, Lankford stole second. Williams gave an intentional walk to Jose, setting up a forceout or double play possibility with Gerald Perry at the plate.

Going for broke

Perry rapped a hard grounder between first and second. Kruk snared the ball and threw to shortstop Dickie Thon, covering second, for the forceout of Jose.

Thon looked to first, prepared to make a throw to complete an inning-ending double play, but no one was there. Williams, whose pitching motion took him to the third-base side of the mound, failed to cover the bag at first.

As Thon held the ball, Lankford rounded third and headed for the plate, never looking to see whether third-base coach Bucky Dent was giving the stop sign.

“From the start, I just decided I was going,” Lankford said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Hung out to dry

Phillies second baseman Randy Ready told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Lankford was hustling. He never stopped at third. I started screaming at Dickie to throw home.”

Thon’s throw to Daulton arrived ahead of Lankford, who lowered his shoulder and slammed into the catcher “with the force of an 18-wheeler hitting a brick wall,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Daulton toppled and the ball fell from his glove, enabling Lankford to score the winning run for a 7-6 victory. Boxscore

Lankford separated Daulton “from both the baseball and his senses,” wrote Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News. Video

“He got me pretty good,” Daulton said. “It was bang-bang.”

Feeling woozy, Daulton said, “I saw him out of the corner of my eye and then I don’t remember.”

Lankford told the Post-Dispatch it was his first plate collision. “I’ll do anything to win a game,” Lankford said. “It’s not that I want to hurt anybody or anything, but I’ll do whatever I have to do to score.”