1963 Topps #309 Jim Brewer
About Jim Brewer
Brewer's card #309 sits in the fourth series of the 1963 set and is the last Topps card to show him as a Cub. The season behind it barely happened: he pitched six times for Chicago in 1962, one of them a start, and was gone inside 5 2/3 innings - 0-1, a 9.53 ERA, ten hits allowed and exactly one strikeout. He spent most of that summer at Triple-A, still trying to hold a big league job three years after his debut, and the Cubs would move him that winter.
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
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 172 | 0 | 6 | 67 | 70 | 19 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here.
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Related cards
Team card: #222 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #3 1962 National League Home Run Leaders
- #15 Ken Hubbs
- #31 Cal Koonce
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #58 Bob Will
- #81 Jimmie Schaffer
- #95 Larry Jackson
- #113 Don Landrum
- #175 Bob Buhl
- #193 Andre Rodgers
- #212 Glen Hobbie
- #242 Power Plus
- #252 Ron Santo
- #272 Danny Murphy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #309 card?
It is card #309 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Brewer of the Chicago Cubs.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.