Eddie Murray, 2010 Topps Vintage Legends #VLC37

Earlier this week I bought a box of 2010 Topps Update Series so I would be able to rip some packs while I was on a work trip in Pittsburgh. I was pretty happy with my haul, as I got all of the Orioles base cards excepting Alfredo Simon. I also got some sharp-looking inserts of some retired players, including this superlative Eddie Murray card. The Vintage Legends insert set is kind of hit-or-miss for me; it features some of the greats of the game on anachronistic Topps designs of the past. In some cases, Topps whiffed in its efforts to recreate its own cards. I pulled a Willie McCovey card that goofed up the lettering and the coloring of 1988 Topps. But the ones that look good are quite cool, like Cy Young's 1977 replica.

This Eddie Murray card is an homage to 1963 Topps, and although it takes liberties with the original color scheme, it does so to great effect. The actual 1963s featured red, blue, green, orange, or yellow bars at the bottom and inset photo backgrounds of the same set of colors. The addition of black and a darker Oriole-colored orange makes this card pop. And of course, the only thing better than one badass photo of young Eddie is TWO badass photos of young Eddie. The card back displays his career batting line, the teams he played for, and a comparison of his 1983 statistics to the league's best players in the 1963 season. In this case, only Hank Aaron measured up to Murray's triple crown numbers of .306, 33 HR, 111 RBI (Hammerin' Hank went .319-44-130...he was pretty dang good).

Oh, and my big hit for the box was a relic card featuring a swatch of CC Sabathia's All-Star warmup jersey...so if there are any Yankee fans or fans of big fat guys who want to make an offer for it, I am all ears.