1961 Topps #343 Earl Robinson
About Earl Robinson
Robinson finally stuck on a big-league roster in 1961, sharing Baltimore's right field job with left-handed-hitting Whitey Herzog and starting 53 of the 78 games he played out there. His first career home run, a game-tying three-run shot off Minnesota's Jack Kralick on June 20, kicked off the hot streak that carried him to a .266 average with 12 doubles, three triples, eight homers and 30 RBIs in 96 games, comfortably his most productive season in the majors. Card #343, from the fourth series, is his recognized rookie card, issued in his first season with the Orioles.
Earl Robinson (1936-2014) was a two-sport star at the University of California, Berkeley, an All-American shortstop in 1957 and a basketball captain who helped the Golden Bears win three straight conference titles. Born in New Orleans and raised in Berkeley, the right-handed-hitting outfielder signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958 for a $60,000 bonus, which made him the first African American player to receive a bonus contract. He debuted that September and got into eight games, six of them at third base, then spent 1959 and 1960 in Triple-A before the Dodgers sold his contract to the Baltimore Orioles in December 1960. Baltimore gave him his only extended work: across parts of four major league seasons he batted .268 with 12 home runs and 44 RBIs in 170 games, mostly in right field, closing out in 1964 as a left and center field reserve. Robinson then earned a doctorate in education and taught speech and communications for decades at Laney College in Oakland, where Rickey Henderson took his class to prepare a Hall of Fame induction speech. Robinson is in the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame (1988) and the Pac-10 Hall of Honor (2010), not the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 393 | 0 | 29 | 204 | 102 | 36 | 9 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Related cards
Team card: #159 Baltimore Orioles Team
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- #10 Brooks Robinson
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- #62 Al Pilarcik
- #71 Jerry Adair
- #85 Jerry Walker
- #102 Gene Stephens
- #125 Steve Barber
- #131 Paul Richards
- #140 Gus Triandos
- #182 Dave Nicholson
- #218 Hal Brown
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- #256 Billy Hoeft
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #343 card?
It is card #343 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Earl Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles.
Is 1961 Topps #343 a rookie card?
Yes - #343 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Earl Robinson.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-05.