Too Cool for Cardboard – Runnin’ Redbirds

1993 Upper Deck - Runnin' Redbirds

Geronimo Pena, Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey and Ozzie Smith were, for some reason, featured on one of these awesome 1993 Upper Deck team cards.  On these cards, a group of players from one team are associated with some kind of slogan, like, in this case, “Runnin’ Redbirds.”  Smith, of course, is a Hall of Famer, Lankford was coming off a really good 1992 season, but I’m not really sure what Gllkey and Pena are doing there.

You will notice two things about this slogan:

1. There is an absence of a “g,” replaced with an apostrophe in the word “Runnin’.”  This is obviously much cooler than using the word “Running,” which only nerds use.
2. The cardinal on the “Runnin’ Redbirds” logo is much stronger looking than the cardinal they use on their hats and jerseys… almost juiced up, one might say… perhaps a sign of things to come for the Cardinals later that decade?