1968 Topps #206 Cal Ermer
About this card
This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1968 Topps set, numbered among the regular cards rather than grouped as a subset.
About Cal Ermer
Card #206 in the print series 3 run pictures Cal Ermer as Minnesota's manager, a role he returned to for 1968 after guiding the Twins to the brink of a pennant the year before. Number 206 falls well within the regular run. Card catalogs commonly list it as Ermer's rookie card, but the shop's rookie-card designation covers players only, not managers, so it isn't flagged as one here. The 1968 club never found that pennant-race form again: a big off-season trade with the Dodgers backfired, Harmon Killebrew went down with a serious hamstring injury at the All-Star Game, and Minnesota slid to 79-83 and seventh place. Ermer was fired at season's end and replaced by his own coach, Billy Martin, in Martin's first big-league managing job.
Calvin Coolidge Ermer was born November 10, 1923, in Baltimore, Maryland, the youngest of seven children, and attended Patterson High School before serving in the Marine Corps during World War II. A slick-fielding, light-hitting infielder, he spent parts of a decade in the Washington Senators farm system, reaching the majors for a single game on September 26, 1947, going hitless in three at-bats while handling seven chances flawlessly at second base. Ermer's real gift proved to be managing: he won pennants with Charlotte, Orlando, Chattanooga and the Birmingham Barons, earning The Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year award in 1958 with Birmingham. He coached third base for the Baltimore Orioles in 1962 before being promoted from Triple-A Denver in June 1967 to replace Sam Mele, driving the Minnesota Twins into a four-team pennant race that slipped away on the season's final weekend. He returned for 1968 but was let go after the club fell to seventh place, later coaching for Milwaukee and Oakland and managing Minnesota's Toledo farm club into the 1980s. He died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on August 8, 2009.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 391 | 21 | 118 | 178 | 47 | 17 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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. Slabs of the yellow team-letter #49 and #66 are 1968 Milton Bradley game cards and are not counted here.
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Related cards
Team card: #137 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #4 American League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #6 American League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #10 American League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #12 American League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #28 Ted Uhlaender
- #44 Frank Kostro
- #64 Jim Merritt
- #80 Rod Carew
- #91 Jim Ollom
- #111 Rich Reese
- #165 Tony Oliva
- #181 Jerry Zimmerman
- #220 Harmon Killebrew
- #243 Rich Rollins
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #206 card?
It is card #206 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Cal Ermer of the Minnesota Twins. This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1968 Topps set, numbered among the regular cards rather than grouped as a subset.
How many cards are in the 1968 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 606 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 without a gap and no printed number carries two different cards; eight cards - six of the seven checklists, #10 AL Pitching Leaders and #400 Mike McCormick - carry a catalogued print variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Beckett, 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.