1968 Topps #242 Moe Drabowsky


About Moe Drabowsky
Card #242 is a series-3 issue reporting the lowest earned run average of Drabowsky's career, a 1.60 mark across 43 games in 1967, with 12 saves and a 7-5 record. He was Baltimore's primary closer that summer, and those 12 saves gave him the only top-ten finish in a league saves race he would ever have. The bullpen was close to the only good news in town: the defending champions fell to 76-85 and a tie for sixth place, 15 1/2 games behind Boston.
Myron Walter "Moe" Drabowsky, born July 21, 1935, in Ozanna, Poland, grew up in Connecticut. The Cubs signed him out of Trinity College in 1956 as a $75,000 bonus baby, and in 1957 he struck out 170 batters, tied for second in the National League. His elbow gave out in July 1958, and he became a 17-year journeyman - Cubs, Braves, Reds, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, Cardinals and White Sox - finishing 88-105 with a 3.71 ERA, 55 saves and 1,162 strikeouts. Baltimore remade him as a reliever, and in the 1966 World Series opener he allowed one hit over 6 2/3 innings and struck out 11 Dodgers, a single-game record for a relief pitcher, six in a row to match Hod Eller's 1919 mark. He won a second ring in 1970. Off the mound he was baseball's great prankster: snakes in teammates' lockers, bullpen phone pranks, a hotfoot for Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2006.
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 | 228 | 7 | 49 | 112 | 33 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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. 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: #334 Baltimore Orioles
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #2 American League 1967 Batting Leaders
- #4 American League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #20 Brooks Robinson
- #42 Larry Haney
- #56 Orioles 1968 Rookie Stars
- #82 Sam Bowens
- #97 Tom Phoebus
- #118 Mark Belanger
- #135 Paul Blair
- #163 Gene Brabender
- #186 Eddie Watt
- #194 Don Buford
- #204 Andy Etchebarren
- #222 Jim Hardin
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #242 card?
It is card #242 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Moe Drabowsky of the Baltimore Orioles.
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.