1986 Topps Rance Mulliniks
Like many young Americans of the 1980’s, I was left utterly confused the first time I laid eyes upon a Rance Mulliniks baseball card. “That’s a misprint, right? His name is really Lance Mulligan, right?” Here is the answer to those questions: Wrong! Truth be told, the parents of Rance Mulliniks – the Mulligans – actually had plans to name their first boy “Lance,” but an Asian doctor filled out the birth certificate, and many things were lost in translation (including his middle name, “Rarry”). The Mulligans had intentions to legally change their son’s name back to normal, until Rance hit three triples in a tee-ball little league game. It was too late, because a star was born. Unfortunately, that star’s name was Rance Mulliniks. On the positive side, Rance Mulliniks, like Peter Pan, never ages, and he eventually DID change his name to Jeff Kent. As far as that thing on his neck, I don’t know if it’s a birthmark, or some undetermined residue that happened to creep into my shoebox of old baseball cards. I’m thinking the latter because, believe it or not, my collection of Rance Mulliniks never seemed to require protective plastic sleeves.
Did you know?
Larry Bird once said of Rance Mulliniks, “He is like God in baseball cleats.”
