1966 Topps #251 Ed Brinkman
About Ed Brinkman
Card #251 is a third-series card in the 1966 set, inside the 1-370 range Topps also printed for the Venezuelan market on flimsier stock with darker backs, a parallel far harder to find clean than the American issue. The season behind it was Brinkman's grimmest at the plate: .185 with 5 home runs and 35 RBI in 1965. He still led the entire Washington club in games played, at 154.
Edwin Albert Brinkman grew up in Cincinnati and played at Western Hills High School alongside Pete Rose, and scouts of the day rated Brinkman the better prospect of the two. Courted by 17 clubs, he signed with the Washington Senators in May 1961 for a bonus reported as high as $75,000 spread over five years, the largest the young franchise had handed out, and debuted that September at age 19. A slick-fielding, light-hitting shortstop, he held the Washington job for most of the next decade until a four-for-four trade on October 9, 1970 sent him, Aurelio Rodriguez, Joe Coleman and Jim Hannan to Detroit for Denny McLain, Elliott Maddox, Don Wert and Norm McRae. In 1972 he made only seven errors in 156 games, set American League records with 72 straight errorless games and 331 consecutive chances handled cleanly, won his lone Gold Glove and was voted Tiger of the Year as Detroit took the AL East. His only All-Star selection came in 1973. He closed out in 1975 with the Cardinals, Rangers and Yankees at a .224 career average, then instructed, coached and scouted for Detroit and the White Sox, managing their Double-A Montgomery club in 1977 with Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker up the middle. He died in Cincinnati in 2008.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 333 | 7 | 71 | 169 | 53 | 19 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team card: #194 Washington Senators
More Washington Senators cards:
- #11 Senators 1966 Rookie Stars
- #29 Mike Brumley
- #46 Howie Koplitz
- #69 Ken Hamlin
- #77 Johnny Orsino
- #95 Pete Richert
- #118 Mike McCormick
- #149 Dick Nen
- #165 Don Lock
- #211 Frank Kreutzer
- #274 Buster Narum
- #294 Steve Ridzik
- #312 Bob Saverine
- #333 Senators 1966 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #251 card?
It is card #251 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Brinkman of the Washington Senators.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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.