1973 Topps #615 Rookie Third Basemen - Ron Cey / John Hilton / Mike Schmidt
On this card: Ron Cey, John Hilton, Mike Schmidt
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
Cey played 152 games for the Dodgers in 1973 and hit .245 with 15 home runs. His 80 RBI were second on the club. He went 12-for-23 with 10 RBI to win NL Player of the Week for May 14-20 and placed sixth in Rookie of the Year voting. His 1973 Topps #615 is a print series 5 high number, a Rookies card with John Hilton of the Padres and Mike Schmidt of the Phillies. Schmidt's rookie card makes it a key card of the set. Ron Cey, the Penguin, was the Dodgers third baseman from 1973 to 1982: six straight All-Star Games, 316 career home runs, and a share of the 1981 World Series MVP award, with later years in Chicago and Oakland.
Hilton made the 1973 Padres as the starting third baseman and hit his first major league home run on April 29 at Wrigley Field, off Ferguson Jenkins. He went to Triple-A Hawaii at the end of May and returned in September as the regular second baseman, finishing at .197 with 5 home runs. His rookie card, #615, is a fifth-series high number and one of the set's key rookie cards, shared with the Dodgers' Ron Cey and the Phillies' Mike Schmidt, whose rookie card it also is. Dave Hilton was a San Diego Padres third and second baseman from 1972 to 1975 who later played in Japan for the Yakult Swallows. The writer Haruki Murakami has credited a 1978 double Hilton hit there with inspiring him to become an author.
A dislocated shoulder delayed the start of Schmidt's first full season, and in 1973 he batted .196 with 136 strikeouts in 367 at-bats. He hit 18 home runs, one of them a walk-off against Bob Gibson in April, and manager Danny Ozark kept him in Philadelphia when the front office wanted him sent down. #615 is his rookie card, a fifth-series high number from the Rookies subset that he shares with Ron Cey of the Dodgers and John Hilton of the Padres. Third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1972 to 1989, Mike Schmidt hit 548 home runs, led the National League in homers eight times, won three MVP awards and ten Gold Gloves, and entered the Hall of Fame in 1995.
Sources: Wikipedia (Ron Cey) · Wikipedia (Dave Hilton) · Wikipedia (Mike Schmidt) · SABR BioProject (Ron Cey) · SABR BioProject (Dave Hilton) · SABR BioProject (Mike Schmidt) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 12,071 | 5 | 252 | 1,740 | 2,309 | 2,617 | 1,916 | 3,168 | 64 |
| SGC | 4,967 | 1 | 47 | 280 | 569 | 819 | 1,125 | 1,912 | 214 |
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: #91 Los Angeles Dodgers, #316 San Diego Padres, #536 Philadelphia Phillies
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
More San Diego Padres cards:
- #12 Padres Field Leaders
- #32 Fred Norman
- #57 Derrel Thomas
- #83 Leron Lee
- #112 Gary Ross
- #133 Dave Roberts
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #3 Jim Lonborg
- #6 Mac Scarce
- #37 Bill Robinson
- #65 1972 Earned Run Average Leaders
- #66 1972 Victory Leaders
- #67 1972 Strikeout Leaders
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #615 card?
It is card #615 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Cey, John Hilton and Mike Schmidt. 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 #615 a rookie card?
Yes - #615 is the rookie card of John Hilton and Mike Schmidt. Ron Cey had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
What are the key cards in the 1973 Topps set?
#615 1973 Rookie Third Basemen, which carries Mike Schmidt's rookie card beside Ron Cey and John Hilton, is the headline card of the set. The other key cards are #50 Roberto Clemente and #305 Willie Mays, the last Topps cards of both as active players, #174 Rich Gossage, his rookie card, and #220 Nolan Ryan. The high numbers, #529-660, are the scarce end of the set.
Why is #615 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.