Brooks Robinson and the Baltimore Orioles

[roarfrom34]

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. hitting his only three Home Run game of his career....Ironically his third HR was a Grand Slam and tied Eddie Murray for the most career Orioles homers (333)...Also brother Bill homered in this game as well, marking the 2nd (and last) time that they homered in the same game:

[Chstrite]

Good evening! This week is Brooks' final year in the PSA Master. In 1978 he had 5 cards. This was one of the smaller years featured on a card or item in the Master. First off, you will see the PSA 9 TCMA Stars of the 1960s. This card has 7 peers and 3 graded at the PSA 10 level. This set has 293 cards featuring photos from Mike Aronstein's library of photos. I enjoy the photos from this set and is full of HoF'ers. Next, is the 1978 Orioles Topps Team Card. This PSA 9 is fairly common with 62 peers and 25 graded as PSA 10. The Topps Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is tied highest graded with 1 peer. This card is hard to find at this condition. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker Brooks issue is a PSA 10 GEM, which was fairly pricy and very difficult to find for me despite having 14 peers. The 1978 O Pee Chee PSA 9 has 24 peers and one PSA 10. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker card is one of several players featured achieving a significant event in their career. The 1977 campaign for Brooks was his 23d season in uniform with the Orioles establishing a record of longevity with one ballclub. Sadly, this will be my last week featuring a year in the Brooks Master. It was a lot of fun writing for the past 6 months about the PSA Master featuring Brooks His cards are plentiful with many exceptions, especially the lower population cards. I am very partial to the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s and having Brooks in the middle of those years both with Topps and all the oddball cards is very exciting. Several weeks ago, I actually completed the Brooks PSA Master set. The last card needed was the 1975 NST Mr. Baseball Japan Card/Sticker from the Nagashima set featuring Brooks in uniform. The PSA Master Set for Brooks has 272 total items. I did some research on other popular HOF players from that era such as Yaz, Mays, Clemente, Mantle, Aaron, Gibson and others and was surprised to learn that none of them were complete. Many were short a few cards, but again, incomplete. My set has a qualitative score of 7.05. It is ranked number 2 (sad face). The number 1 Brooks set is 96% complete with a qualitative score of 8.07. The difference between my #2 set and the #1 set in terms of grades is significantly different. For example, if I own a card that has a mid value or weight graded as a PSA 5 and find a PSA 10, it will only increase my score by .002. I would likely take me tens of thousands of dollars and 100 increased graded cards to overtake the #1 set. My set has a lot of items that are #1 / highest population (16) and 69 tied for highest grade / population. Within my set there are a number of items that no one else has. I have 6 items at PSA waiting to be added to the Master and another 10 or so at PSA being graded that I hope to add, too. Once PSA opens, I have a handful of items to send for grading and addition (i.e., 1968 Brooks/Franke OPC Champs #1, 1964 Martin Marietta Family Night, 1974 OPC Orioles Team Card and a few 1967/68 Coca Cola / Fanta / Tab / Sprite Soda Caps. Sadly, as you add items with my score, your qualitative score decreases unless you are adding PSA 7 - 10s. Needless to say, my OCD and endless quest to slay new or improved graded Brooks cards is fun while exhausting. The Brooks collection keeps me in the hobby and allows me to meet many people to include as many as 10 folks on this string. Anyway, I hope the weekly posts have been educational and enjoyable. For those of you that do not like PSA, my apologies but hope I have clarified a few things along the way. I will pop in frequently with Brooks items so see you soon. Happy Collecting.

[ksfarmboy]

Thanks for posting your cards Charlie and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Will you be posting the other cards you’ve acquired such as the 1968 OPC and the Martin family night cards once they are graded? Would like to see them.

[BaltOrioles]

Originally Posted by ksfarmboy

Will you be posting the other cards you’ve acquired such as the 1968 OPC and the Martin family night cards once they are graded? Would like to see them.

Clint,

An ungraded 1964 Martin Family Night set was shown in post #1582.

[ksfarmboy]

Thanks Alan, pretty neat set.

[Mark70Z]

Originally Posted by Chstrite

Good evening! This week is Brooks' final year in the PSA Master. In 1978 he had 5 cards. This was one of the smaller years featured on a card or item in the Master. First off, you will see the PSA 9 TCMA Stars of the 1960s. This card has 7 peers and 3 graded at the PSA 10 level. This set has 293 cards featuring photos from Mike Aronstein's library of photos. I enjoy the photos from this set and is full of HoF'ers. Next, is the 1978 Orioles Topps Team Card. This PSA 9 is fairly common with 62 peers and 25 graded as PSA 10. The Topps Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is tied highest graded with 1 peer. This card is hard to find at this condition. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker Brooks issue is a PSA 10 GEM, which was fairly pricy and very difficult to find for me despite having 14 peers. The 1978 O Pee Chee PSA 9 has 24 peers and one PSA 10. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker card is one of several players featured achieving a significant event in their career. The 1977 campaign for Brooks was his 23d season in uniform with the Orioles establishing a record of longevity with one ballclub. Sadly, this will be my last week featuring a year in the Brooks Master. It was a lot of fun writing for the past 6 months about the PSA Master featuring Brooks His cards are plentiful with many exceptions, especially the lower population cards. I am very partial to the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s and having Brooks in the middle of those years both with Topps and all the oddball cards is very exciting. Several weeks ago, I actually completed the Brooks PSA Master set. The last card needed was the 1975 NST Mr. Baseball Japan Card/Sticker from the Nagashima set featuring Brooks in uniform. The PSA Master Set for Brooks has 272 total items. I did some research on other popular HOF players from that era such as Yaz, Mays, Clemente, Mantle, Aaron, Gibson and others and was surprised to learn that none of them were complete. Many were short a few cards, but again, incomplete. My set has a qualitative score of 7.05. It is ranked number 2 (sad face). The number 1 Brooks set is 96% complete with a qualitative score of 8.07. The difference between my #2 set and the #1 set in terms of grades is significantly different. For example, if I own a card that has a mid value or weight graded as a PSA 5 and find a PSA 10, it will only increase my score by .002. I would likely take me tens of thousands of dollars and 100 increased graded cards to overtake the #1 set. My set has a lot of items that are #1 / highest population (16) and 69 tied for highest grade / population. Within my set there are a number of items that no one else has. I have 6 items at PSA waiting to be added to the Master and another 10 or so at PSA being graded that I hope to add, too. Once PSA opens, I have a handful of items to send for grading and addition (i.e., 1968 Brooks/Franke OPC Champs #1, 1964 Martin Marietta Family Night, 1974 OPC Orioles Team Card and a few 1967/68 Coca Cola / Fanta / Tab / Sprite Soda Caps. Sadly, as you add items with my score, your qualitative score decreases unless you are adding PSA 7 - 10s. Needless to say, my OCD and endless quest to slay new or improved graded Brooks cards is fun while exhausting. The Brooks collection keeps me in the hobby and allows me to meet many people to include as many as 10 folks on this string. Anyway, I hope the weekly posts have been educational and enjoyable. For those of you that do not like PSA, my apologies but hope I have clarified a few things along the way. I will pop in frequently with Brooks items so see you soon. Happy Collecting.

Charlie,

Thanks so much for posting your Brooks Robinson PSA Master set. I’ve enjoyed viewing all of those high grade and rare items of my favorite player of all time. That’s quite an accomplishment to complete the set for sure. Please continue to post your additions once received and let us know what cards, if any, were added to the set.

Keep it going!

[rugbymarine]

Originally Posted by Chstrite

The Brooks collection keeps me in the hobby and allows me to meet many people to include as many as 10 folks on this string. Anyway, I hope the weekly posts have been educational and enjoyable. For those of you that do not like PSA, my apologies but hope I have clarified a few things along the way. I will pop in frequently with Brooks items so see you soon. Happy Collecting.

Charlie,

Your collections is impressive. Thank you for the run of posts showing the cards from each year. I enjoyed reading through it each week.

[BaltOrioles]

Originally Posted by Chstrite

Good evening! This week is Brooks' final year in the PSA Master. In 1978 he had 5 cards.

Charlie,

Thanks for sharing your collection. I know PSA isn't really into variations, but here's a few from the last few years of Brooks career you might want to add to your collection. Granted some variations are slight.

Team Issued Postcards

1975 (2 Different)

1975 Postcards 08 - Copy.jpg


1976 (3 Different)

1976 Postcards 09 - Copy.jpg


1977 (3 Different Orange Jersey, 2 Different White Jersey)

1977 Postcards 06 - Copy.jpg 1977 Postcards 07 - Copy.jpg


1977 Sertoma Stars

This set came in light and dark versions.

1977 Sertoma Stars #2 - Copy.JPG 1977 Sertoma Stars #3 - Copy.JPG


1975 Hostess Proof Panel

Brooks has slight photo cropping and back is printed in brown instead of black.

1976 Hostess Panels #1 - Copy.JPG

[BaltOrioles]

Here's the last three years of the Orioles team issued publicity photo sheets that feature Brooks. There are corresponding individual 8x10 photos of Brooks with the same poses.


1975

1975 Tadder 2 - Copy.jpg


1976

1976 Tadder 3 - Copy.jpg


1977

1977 Tadder 1 - Copy.jpg

[Chstrite]

Thanks for sharing the variations, Alan. I will keep an eye on those. I was aware of some but not all. Love the publicity photo sheets. Never see those.

Mark, I will keep everyone posted on the Brooks Master Additions.

Appreciate everyone’s comments.

[Mark70Z]

Originally Posted by roarfrom34

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. hitting his only three Home Run game of his career....Ironically his third HR was a Grand Slam and tied Eddie Murray for the most career Orioles homers (333)...Also brother Bill homered in this game as well, marking the 2nd (and last) time that they homered in the same game:

Bill,

That is an AWESOME ticket!