1973 Topps #612 Rookie Pitchers - Steve Lawson / Bob Reynolds / Brent Strom
On this card: Steve Lawson, Bob Reynolds, Brent Strom
About this card
Cards #601-616 are the sixteen three-player 1973 Rookies cards, each titled by position. A Rookies card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
The story on this card
Texas' Lawson appeared with Baltimore's Bob Reynolds and Cleveland's Brent Strom on 1973 Topps #612, a fifth-series high number in the Rookies subset and Lawson's rookie card. He spent 1973 with the Rangers' Triple-A Spokane club, where shoulder trouble limited him to 54 innings. He went 1-8 with a 7.50 ERA and made 10 starts. Steve Lawson was an Oakland draft choice who reached Texas as a left-handed reliever in 1972. He posted a 2.81 ERA and singled in his only major-league at-bat.
Reynolds worked 42 games in 1973, one of them a start, and finished 7-5 with a 1.95 ERA and nine saves for the Orioles. In the ALCS he threw 5 2/3 innings and struck out five, but Oakland won the series three games to two. Topps printed him with Baltimore on Rookies card #612, a fifth-series high number, alongside Steve Lawson (Texas Rangers) and Brent Strom (Cleveland Indians). Bob Reynolds, a right-handed reliever nicknamed Bullet, pitched in the majors from 1969 to 1975 and had his best seasons with the Baltimore Orioles in 1973 and 1974.
Strom debuted with the Mets on July 31, 1972, striking out seven Expos in 6 2/3 innings. He went 0-3 with a 6.82 ERA that year. The Mets then traded him with Bob Rauch to Cleveland for Phil Hennigan, and in 1973 he made 18 starts and went 2-10 with a 4.61 ERA. His rookie card, #612 in the fifth, high-number series, is the Rookie Pitchers trio with Steve Lawson of the Rangers and Bob Reynolds of the Orioles; Strom is printed with Cleveland. Brent Strom was a left-handed starter who went 22-39 with a 3.95 ERA for the Mets, Indians and Padres, then became a pitching coach whose Houston staffs won the 2017 World Series and produced two Cy Young winners.
Sources: Wikipedia (Steve Lawson) · Wikipedia (Bob Reynolds) · Wikipedia (Brent Strom) · SABR BioProject · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 267 | 9 | 81 | 139 | 25 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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 cards: #7 Texas Rangers, #278 Baltimore Orioles, #629 Cleveland Indians
More Texas Rangers cards:
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #9 Johnny Oates
- #34 Pat Dobson
- #56 Merv Rettenmund
- #90 Brooks Robinson
- #109 Doyle Alexander
- #136 Orioles Field Leaders
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #11 Chris Chambliss
- #31 Buddy Bell
- #53 Steve Dunning
- #66 1972 Victory Leaders
- #86 Tom McCraw
- #134 Milt Wilcox
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #612 card?
It is card #612 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Steve Lawson, Bob Reynolds and Brent Strom. Cards #601-616 are the sixteen three-player 1973 Rookies cards, each titled by position. A Rookies card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
Is 1973 Topps #612 a rookie card?
Yes - #612 is the rookie card of Steve Lawson and Brent Strom. Bob Reynolds had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
Why is #612 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the fifth and last print series, #529-660 - the scarce end of the set.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
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.