1967 Topps #134 Gates Brown
About Gates Brown
By 1966 Brown had settled into a reserve and pinch-hitting role behind Horton, batting .266 with 7 home runs and 27 RBI in 88 games while hitting .325 as a pinch-hitter that year. His 1967 Topps card, #134, is a series-two issue from the following spring, printed as Brown was already building the reputation as one of the American League's premier pinch-hitting specialists.
Gates Brown, born William James Brown, spent his entire thirteen-season career (1963-1975) with the Detroit Tigers after an unconventional path to professional baseball: convicted of burglary at eighteen, he served time at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, where a prison coach spotted his hitting and helped connect him to Tigers scouts Frank Skaff and Pat Mullin, who signed him for a $7,000 bonus. He debuted on June 19, 1963, hitting a pinch-hit home run at Fenway Park in his first major-league at-bat, the third player in American League history to do so. Playing left field for Detroit, Brown became the game's premier pinch-hitting specialist, retiring with American League career records of 107 pinch hits, 414 pinch-hit at-bats and 16 pinch-hit home runs. His signature 1968 season, a .370 average built almost entirely off the bench, helped the Tigers win the World Series. He later served as Detroit's hitting coach from 1978 through 1984. His mother's childhood nickname for him, 'Gates,' tied to his walk as a toddler, stuck for life.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 289 | 2 | 34 | 134 | 80 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #378 Detroit Tigers
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #13 Joe Sparma
- #30 Al Kaline
- #48 Bill Freehan
- #72 Tigers 1967 Rookie Stars
- #88 Mickey Lolich
- #112 Dave Wickersham
- #170 Dick McAuliffe
- #192 Fred Gladding
- #216 Bengal Belters
- #235 American League 1966 Pitching Leaders
- #237 American League 1966 Strikeout Leaders
- #239 American League 1966 Batting Leaders
- #247 Jerry Lumpe
- #263 Hank Aguirre
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1967 Topps #134 card?
It is card #134 of the 609-card 1967 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gates Brown of the Detroit Tigers.
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.