1967 Topps #281 Bob Rodgers
About Bob Rodgers
1967 Topps #281 is a third-series card from a season a lingering blood infection dogged start to finish. It cost him less playing time than production - he got into 139 games and caught 134, but hit just .219 with six home runs and 41 RBIs. He also spent one inning in left field, the only time in nine seasons he played anywhere but catcher. The night that stayed with him came on August 18, when he was catching Jack Hamilton and Boston's Tony Conigliaro was hit in the face by a pitch; Rodgers said it was like taking a bat to a pumpkin. It was also the last winning season the Angels managed while he was a player.
Robert Leroy "Buck" Rodgers, born August 16, 1938, in Delaware, Ohio, was a basketball star and six-time no-hit pitcher at Prospect High School before Ohio Wesleyan University converted him to catcher. He signed with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent in 1956, spent five years buried in a farm-system logjam of catchers, and was taken by the Los Angeles Angels in the 1960 expansion draft. Look magazine named him the American Association's top catcher at Dallas-Fort Worth in 1961, and he reached the majors that September, spending all nine of his big-league seasons, 1961 through 1969, with the franchise as it went from the Los Angeles Angels to the California Angels. A 6-foot-2 switch hitter scouted as a fine handler of pitchers, he caught Bo Belinsky's no-hitter in 1962 and was behind the plate when Tony Conigliaro was beaned in 1967, finishing with a .232 average, 704 hits, 288 RBIs and 31 home runs in 932 games. He then coached and managed for years, running the Milwaukee Brewers, Montreal Expos and California Angels and winning National League Manager of the Year in 1987.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 360 | 3 | 52 | 206 | 69 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 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. PSA registers a row for every one of the 624 states; SGC lists no separate row for the #149 white-streak state.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1967 Topps #281 card?
It is card #281 of the 609-card 1967 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Rodgers of the California Angels.
How many cards are in the 1967 Topps Baseball set?
609 cards, tracked as 624 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 609 without a gap - no number was skipped and none was used twice - and 15 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-12.