1961 Topps #218 Hal Brown
About Hal Brown
Topps gave Brown two 1961 cards. The first-series #46 puts him on the American League ERA leaders board with Frank Baumann, Jim Bunning and Art Ditmar, earned by the 12-5, 3.06 season of 1960 - the best year of his career and his second straight AL title for fewest walks per nine innings - for a Baltimore club that won 89 games and finished second to the Yankees. The plain third-series #218 is his own Orioles portrait, the steady swing man on a staff of twentysomethings; he answered with a 10-6 record and a 3.19 ERA in 1961.
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 · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 313 | 1 | 26 | 132 | 102 | 33 | 12 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 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
More Hal Brown in this set: #46 League Leaders
Team card: #159 Baltimore Orioles Team
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #10 Brooks Robinson
- #26 Wes Stock
- #62 Al Pilarcik
- #71 Jerry Adair
- #85 Jerry Walker
- #102 Gene Stephens
- #125 Steve Barber
- #131 Paul Richards
- #140 Gus Triandos
- #182 Dave Nicholson
- #240 Ron Hansen
- #256 Billy Hoeft
- #277 Hank Foiles
- #295 Milt Pappas
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #218 card?
It is card #218 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Brown of the Baltimore Orioles.
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.