1971 Topps #238 Chuck Dobson
About Chuck Dobson
Elbow pain dogged Dobson through all of 1970, by his own account, yet he set career highs with 13 complete games and 267 innings. After the All-Star break he won eight consecutive starts from July 16 to August 14, three of them four-hit shutouts, with a 1.10 ERA. He kept taking the ball on three and four days' rest despite pain every time he threw. Topps issued #238 in its second series, listing him with the Athletics.
Charles Thomas Dobson was a 6-foot-4 right-hander born January 10, 1944, in Kansas City, Missouri. He pitched two seasons at the University of Kansas under coach Floyd Temple and was the number one pitcher on the United States team at the 1964 Summer Games in Japan, where baseball was a demonstration sport. The Kansas City Athletics signed him that summer for $25,000. Dobson spent his whole career in the Athletics organization, following the franchise from Kansas City to Oakland, apart from a closing stretch with the California Angels in 1974 and 1975. He won 15, 16 and 15 games from 1969 through 1971; the 16-win 1970 brought five shutouts, tied with Jim Palmer and Gaylord Perry for the major league lead, and 1971 ended with Oakland's first American League West title. Elbow surgery that offseason removed a piece of bone and cost him all of 1972; he finished 74-69 with a 3.78 ERA and 758 strikeouts in nine seasons. In spring 1971 he became the first active major leaguer to admit taking amphetamines on game days, then retracted it under pressure from owner Charlie Finley and the league office. He got sober in 1985, worked more than a decade as an addiction counselor, and died November 30, 2021, in Kansas City at age 77.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 295 | 0 | 8 | 130 | 126 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 1 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #624 Oakland Athletics
More Oakland Athletics cards:
- #20 Reggie Jackson
- #45 Jim Hunter
- #67 1970 American League ERA Leaders
- #84 Marcel Lachemann
- #109 Steve Hovley
- #135 Rick Monday
- #178 Dave Duncan
- #215 Diego Segui
- #258 Dick Green
- #285 Sal Bando
- #317 Athletics 1971 Rookie Stars
- #338 Gene Tenace
- #356 Bob Locker
- #384 Rollie Fingers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1971 Topps #238 card?
It is card #238 of the 752-card 1971 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chuck Dobson of the Oakland Athletics.
How many cards are in the 1971 Topps Baseball set?
752 cards, tracked as 761 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 752 with none skipped, issued in six print series (132/131/130/130/120/109 cards), the sixth (#644-752) the high numbers; seven cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - the #42, #265 and #306 photo pairs and the #123, #206, #369 and #619 checklists, #369 and #619 in three printings each.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA (its price guide, master set registry and set article), BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-25.