1972 Topps #198 Dodgers Rookie Stars - Charlie Hough / Bob O'Brien / Mike Strahler
On this card: Charlie Hough, Bob O'Brien, Mike Strahler
About this card
This is one of the 29 Rookie Stars cards in the 1972 Topps set, each carrying two or three players under a club title (#724, #741 and #761 are league-wide), and all 29 are rookie cards.
The story on this card
Hough spent 1972 mostly at Triple-A, going 14-5 with a 2.38 ERA in 58 games while fellow knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm spent time with him. He also made two Dodgers appearances covering 2 2/3 innings. His #198 card, from the second series, is a three-man Rookie Stars issue with Bob O'Brien and Mike Strahler, all printed with Los Angeles, and it is the first card for Hough and O'Brien. Knuckleball pitcher for the Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Marlins from 1970 to 1994. He saved 22 games for Los Angeles in 1977, became a Texas starter, and finished 216-216 with a 3.75 ERA and 2,362 strikeouts.
Three Dodgers share #198, a Rookie Stars card from the second series: Charlie Hough, Bob O'Brien and Mike Strahler. It is the rookie card for Hough and for O'Brien. O'Brien's 1971 work behind it covered 42 innings with 15 strikeouts, including a complete-game shutout. Bob O'Brien was a left-handed pitcher who worked 14 games for the 1971 Los Angeles Dodgers, going 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA and a shutout, before the Dodgers sent him to Baltimore in the Frank Robinson trade.
Strahler's workload grew in 1972 to 19 games, two of them starts, including the one complete game of his Dodgers years. He went 1-2 with a 3.26 ERA. Card #198 is a second-series Dodgers Rookie Stars issue that he shares with Charlie Hough and Bob O'Brien, and it is the first Topps card for Hough and for O'Brien. Tall right-handed pitcher from Chicago who worked for the Dodgers from 1970 to 1972 and the Tigers in 1973. He started 13 of his 53 games, finished 6-8 with a 3.57 ERA, and was traded to Milwaukee for Ray Newman in December 1973.
Sources: Wikipedia (Charlie Hough) · Wikipedia (Bob O'Brien) · Wikipedia (Mike Strahler) · SABR BioProject · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 509 | 11 | 97 | 237 | 77 | 39 | 26 | 22 | 0 |
| SGC | 47 | 0 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 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: #522 Los Angeles Dodgers
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- #25 Bill Singer
- #63 Duke Sims
- #93 1971 N.L. Pitching Leaders
- #114 Bill Buckner
- #151 Jim Brewer
- #264 Tommy John
- #265 Wes Parker
- #297 Claude Osteen
- #298 Claude Osteen In Action
- #322 Jose Pena
- #369 Jim Lefebvre
- #390 Willie Davis
- #398 Larry Hisle
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #198 card?
It is card #198 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Charlie Hough, Bob O'Brien and Mike Strahler. This is one of the 29 Rookie Stars cards in the 1972 Topps set, each carrying two or three players under a club title (#724, #741 and #761 are league-wide), and all 29 are rookie cards.
Is 1972 Topps #198 a rookie card?
Yes - #198 is the rookie card of Charlie Hough and Bob O'Brien. Mike Strahler had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
How many cards are in the 1972 Topps Baseball set?
787 cards, tracked as 794 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 787 with none skipped, in six print series (#1-132, #133-263, #264-394, #395-525, #526-656 and #657-787, the high numbers); 7 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - four Chicago Cubs cards with yellow or green under the "C" and "S" of the team name, the #251 and #478 checklists with smaller or larger print on the front, and the #604 checklist with its copyright line aligned right or left.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, 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.