1958 Topps #381 Hal Brown
About Hal Brown
Hal Brown's 1958 Topps card is #381, issued with the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth series of a 494-card set that also introduced the Sport Magazine All-Star subset at #475-495. Known as Skinny, the knuckleball-throwing righty had joined Baltimore in July 1955. He went 7-8 with a 3.90 ERA in 1957, then 7-5 with a 3.07 ERA in 1958.
Hector Harold Brown grew up in Pomona, a cotton-mill section of Greensboro, North Carolina, one of eight children in a family where everybody had a nickname; his was Skinny, hung on him as a chubby baby and never shaken. A hard-hitting high school and American Legion shortstop, he drew the eye of North Carolina coach and part-time Red Sox scout Bunn Hearn, then spent a single semester at Chapel Hill before enlisting in the Army Air Forces in 1943. He served as a bomber gunner based in England and bailed out into the English Channel at 19 after his plane took heavy fire on a raid against German submarine bases in France. Discharged in December 1945, he signed with Boston for a $1,750 bonus, was moved to the mound at Class B Roanoke when the club ran short of pitchers, and climbed the farm system with a knuckleball he did not fully trust until his thirties. Paul Richards, who managed him at Seattle in 1950, kept reclaiming him: the White Sox in 1951, the Orioles in 1955, the Colt .45s in 1963. Brown pitched 14 big-league seasons for five clubs, finished 85-92 with a 3.81 ERA, twice led the American League in fewest walks per nine innings, and was elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1991.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 236 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 83 | 44 | 23 | 21 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Hal Brown card?
It is card #381 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Hal Brown, Baltimore Orioles.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Hal Brown #381 are there?
PSA has graded 236 copies and SGC 15 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.