1965 Topps #523 Mike Brumley
Brumley was a Topps All-Star Rookie for 1964, but Topps left the trophy off this card.
Uncorrected error: Brumley was a 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie selection but the trophy was omitted from the card
About Mike Brumley
Sophomoritis, as Washington writers labeled it, gutted Brumley's second season: he could not lift his average above .150 through the first half and finished at .208 with three home runs and 15 RBIs in 216 at-bats, catching 66 games while Gil Hodges tried five other backstops. On May 8 broadcaster Leo Durocher told a national audience that Brumley could not hit the changeup curve, and Jim Bouton retired him in each of his three at-bats that day. His best moment came September 4, when he set an American League record with eight straight putouts by a catcher to open a game. His 1965 Topps #523 is a high number from the seventh series, inside the set's short-print zone.
Tony Mike Brumley was a left-handed-hitting catcher, born in Granite, Oklahoma, on July 10, 1938 and raised in Oklahoma City, where he starred at Central High School before Brooklyn Dodgers scout Bert Wells signed him in 1957. He spent seven seasons in the Dodgers chain, earning All-Star catcher honors in the Double-A Southern League in 1961 and the Triple-A American Association in 1962, and in 1963 Topps named him the National Association's Triple-A All-Star (West) catcher. That October the Dodgers sold him to the Washington Senators for $50,000, and Washington writers immediately installed him as the club's No. 1 catcher under manager Gil Hodges, an old catcher himself. A rough spring left him on the bench to open 1964, but he seized the job in May and caught 132 games as a rookie, hitting .244 while ranking among the American League's best at throwing out runners. A miserable 1965 at the plate cut him to part-time work, and nine games in 1966 closed a three-year major-league career: 224 games, a .229 average, five home runs and 50 RBIs in 660 at-bats. Brumley pursued a Bachelor of Divinity degree at the University of Oklahoma during his playing days and was ordained a Baptist minister before 1969. He died in Grapevine, Texas, on August 8, 2016.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 288 | 2 | 37 | 141 | 71 | 17 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Related cards
Team card: #267 Washington Senators
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- #99 Gil Hodges
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- #152 Phil Ortega
- #181 Senators 1965 Rookie Stars
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- #224 Bob Chance
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #523 card?
It is card #523 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mike Brumley of the Washington Senators.
Is #523 Mike Brumley an All-Star Rookie trophy card?
No. Brumley was a Topps All-Star Rookie selection for 1964, but the trophy was left off his card, so it is not one of the nine trophy cards (#18, 55, 118, 224, 266, 290, 305, 340, 460).
Does 1965 Topps #523 have an error?
Brumley was a 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie selection but the trophy was omitted from the card. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #523 reads the same way.
Is 1965 Topps #523 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last series, #507-598. Unlike most 1960s Topps sets the 1965 highs are not scarce as a run - the premium sits on the short-printed cards inside #523-598. It is also a short-print zone card. Forty-four of the 76 cards in #523-598 were short-printed; #507-522 was not. The zone is stated as a range because the catalogs disagree on exactly which cards, so no single card is marked.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.