1961 Topps #317 Jim Brewer
About Jim Brewer
Card #317 falls in the fourth series of the 1961 set and is Brewer's rookie card, printed the winter after his July 17, 1960 debut. Cubs manager Lou Boudreau moved the 22-year-old into the starting rotation that summer, and in his second start he held the Milwaukee Braves to a single run over 8 2/3 innings and lost anyway. He had dropped three straight decisions when Billy Martin decked him at Wrigley Field on August 4; the broken bone under his right eye took three operations and ended his year. The 1960 line on the back is a short one: five games, four of them starts, 21 2/3 innings, 0-3, 5.82.
Jim Brewer was a left-handed pitcher who spent 17 major league seasons (1960-1976) with the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and California Angels after the Cubs signed him out of Broken Arrow High School in Oklahoma in 1956. His rookie year ended in violence: on August 4, 1960, Cincinnati's Billy Martin flung his bat toward the mound after a brushback pitch, walked out to retrieve it, then turned and punched Brewer, breaking the orbital bone under his right eye and finishing his season. Brewer sued, and after two trials a Chicago jury awarded him $10,000 in 1969. Traded into the Dodgers' organization in December 1963, he picked up a screwball grip from Braves great Warren Spahn in 1964 and turned it into one of the National League's best relief weapons. He helped Los Angeles to three pennants and the 1965 World Series title, and from 1968 through 1973 averaged roughly 20 saves a year, making the 1973 All-Star team at age 35. Brewer retired with 69 wins, more than 130 saves and a 3.07 ERA in 584 games, then spent three seasons as the Montreal Expos' pitching coach and later taught the screwball to Dodgers prospects. He was killed in a 1987 car crash in Texas, driving through a thunderstorm on his way to a pitching clinic.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 417 | 1 | 40 | 229 | 106 | 22 | 10 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #317 card?
It is card #317 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Brewer of the Chicago Cubs.
Is 1961 Topps #317 a rookie card?
Yes - #317 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Jim Brewer.
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.