1961 Topps #434 Tom Brewer
About Tom Brewer
Brewer came into 1961 with a sore shoulder and never shook it. He lasted one pitch in a May 15 start against Cleveland, went on the disabled list in June with a pulled tendon in his right shoulder, and got into only ten games all year, finishing 3-2 with a 3.43 earned run average over 42 innings. His last big league outing came September 27 at Fenway Park: three scoreless innings against the White Sox. Boston released him that fall, his eighth season with the club and his last anywhere. The card is 1961 Topps #434, a fifth-series Red Sox issue. It is simply the last Topps card of his playing days.
Tom Brewer was a right-handed pitcher who spent his entire eight-season major league career with the Boston Red Sox, from 1954 through 1961. He was born September 3, 1931, in Wadesboro, North Carolina, the nearest hospital town, and was a lifelong resident of Cheraw, South Carolina, just across the state line. Brewer signed with Boston in April 1951 out of Elon College, won 19 of 22 decisions in the Class D North Carolina State League that summer in what proved to be his only minor league season, then served two years in the Army during the Korean War before making the Red Sox staff in 1954. He went 10-9 as a rookie and ran off seven straight seasons of double-digit wins. His finest year came in 1956, when he went 19-9 with a 3.50 earned run average, 15 complete games and a career-high four shutouts, was named to the American League All-Star team, and drew Most Valuable Player votes. He finished with a 91-82 record, an even 4.00 earned run average, 75 complete games and 733 strikeouts across 241 games. Afterward he coached pitchers at Cheraw High School, which named its baseball field for him in 2009; he died in Cheraw in 2018.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 343 | 0 | 26 | 176 | 105 | 22 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #434 card?
It is card #434 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tom Brewer of the Boston Red Sox.
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.