no pressure, kid

i was digging through some vintage dupes recently and stopped on a somewhat scuffed version of bobby murcer's 1970 topps card

it's not his 1971 topps card, which i contend may be the best of all topps cards featuring the yankee stadium facade in the background, but it's still a nice looking card.

turn it over and you have some more baseball card goodness

it's been well documented that murcer, like his idol mickey mantle, was from oklahoma and was signed by the same scout - tom greenwade (who also scouted jackie robinson for the dodgers). it is also well known that murcer was moved from the infield to the outfield and succeeded mantle as the yankees' center fielder.

any time a player takes over for an icon, there is a tremendous amount of pressure. but what if that icon were also your idol? i can't imagine, although murcer played well. he wasn't mantle, but yankee fans didn't seem to hold that against him the way that i shunned greg brock for not being steve garvey. sorry about that greg.