1973 Topps #237 Braves Field Leaders - Eddie Mathews / Lew Burdette / Jim Busby / Roy Hartsfield / Ken Silvestri
On this card: Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette, Jim Busby, Roy Hartsfield, Ken Silvestri
About this card
Managers appear only on the 24 Field Leaders cards, one for each club: each pictures the manager with three or four of his coaches, and there is no solo manager card. Fifteen of the 24 come in two printings. Thirteen include a Hall of Famer, among them coaches Ernie Banks (#81 Cubs), Warren Spahn (#449 Indians) and Bill Mazeroski (#517 Pirates), and the Dodgers' Walt Alston and Tom Lasorda (#569).
About Braves Field Leaders (Eddie Mathews / Lew Burdette / Jim Busby / Roy Hartsfield / Ken Silvestri)
Mathews joined Atlanta's coaching staff in 1971 and replaced Lum Harris as manager on August 7, 1972. He went 23-27 over the rest of that season. Second-series 1973 Topps #237 listed him with Lew Burdette, Jim Busby, Roy Hartsfield and Ken Silvestri. Eddie Mathews was the Braves' slugging third baseman, an All-Star in nine seasons who hit 512 home runs across Boston, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Houston and Detroit, formed a record power duo with Hank Aaron, and won World Series rings in 1957 and 1968.
Burdette returned to the Braves as Atlanta's pitching coach in 1972 and worked under former teammate Eddie Mathews after a midseason managerial change. Second-series 1973 Topps #237 listed them with Jim Busby, Roy Hartsfield and Ken Silvestri. Burdette left Atlanta after the 1973 season. Milwaukee Braves right-hander Lew Burdette worked as a message boy at a West Virginia rayon plant after high school. The job required him to pitch for the company team, and he went 12-2 in its industrial league at 17.
Busby coached for Atlanta in 1972, the year his cousin Steve Busby reached the majors with the Kansas City Royals. His 1973 Topps card, second-series #237, listed the Braves' manager and coaches: Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette, Busby, Roy Hartsfield and Ken Silvestri. Cleveland center fielder Jim Busby hit grand slams on July 5 and 6, 1956, against Detroit and Kansas City. The second supplied all of Cleveland's runs in a 4-2 victory; he finished the season with 12 homers.
Hartsfield moved from the Dodgers to the Atlanta Braves coaching staff after the 1972 season and denied reports of a bitter parting in Los Angeles. His Atlanta stay was brief: in May 1973 Padres general manager Peter Bavasi offered him a two-year contract to manage the Triple-A affiliate in Hawaii. Topps printed him with the Braves on #237 from the second print series, a manager-and-coaches card he shares with Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette, Jim Busby and Ken Silvestri. Roy Hartsfield was a Boston Braves second baseman from 1950 to 1952 who spent 19 years in the Dodgers organization as player, manager and coach. He was the Toronto Blue Jays' first manager, from 1977 to 1979.
Silvestri spent 1973 in the Atlanta bullpen under manager Eddie Mathews, with the Braves organization since 1961, when he began as a coach at Triple-A Louisville. Hank Aaron closed that season on 713 home runs. Topps gave Silvestri #237, a second-series managers and coaches card shared with Mathews, Lew Burdette, Jim Busby and Roy Hartsfield, all printed with the Atlanta Braves. Switch-hitting backup catcher for the White Sox, Yankees and Phillies who handled Robin Roberts for two scoreless innings of Game 2 of the 1950 World Series. A Braves bullpen coach from 1963 to 1975, he managed Atlanta for the final three games of 1967.
Sources: Wikipedia (Eddie Mathews) · Wikipedia (Lew Burdette) · Wikipedia (Jim Busby) · Wikipedia (Roy Hartsfield) · Wikipedia (Ken Silvestri) · SABR BioProject (Eddie Mathews) · SABR BioProject (Lew Burdette) · SABR BioProject (Jim Busby) · SABR BioProject (Roy Hartsfield) · SABR BioProject (Ken Silvestri) · Baseball Almanac (Eddie Mathews) · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (Lew Burdette) · Retrosheet (1) · Retrosheet (2) · BaseballCardPedia
Print variations
Two states of #237 are tracked individually: 237a - Ear Visible and 237b - Ear Airbrushed Out. The difference is on the front of the card (airbrush).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry and the Trading Card Database; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 237a - Ear Visible | |||||||||
| PSA | 87 | 0 | 9 | 32 | 29 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 237b - Ear Airbrushed Out | |||||||||
| PSA | 203 | 2 | 21 | 87 | 44 | 21 | 17 | 8 | 3 |
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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation; SGC slabs whose label names no variation are counted under 237a - Ear Visible.
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Related cards
Team card: #521 Atlanta Braves
More Atlanta Braves cards:
- #1 All-Time Home Run Leaders
- #15 Ralph Garr
- #33 Jim Breazeale
- #72 Ron Reed
- #100 Hank Aaron
- #124 Jim Hardin
- #144 Marty Perez
- #169 Ron Schueler
- #192 Pat Jarvis
- #215 Dusty Baker
- #266 Mike Lum
- #288 Gary Gentry
- #312 Oscar Brown
- #359 Cecil Upshaw
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #237 card?
It is card #237 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette, Jim Busby, Roy Hartsfield and Ken Silvestri. Managers appear only on the 24 Field Leaders cards, one for each club: each pictures the manager with three or four of his coaches, and there is no solo manager card. Fifteen of the 24 come in two printings. Thirteen include a Hall of Famer, among them coaches Ernie Banks (#81 Cubs), Warren Spahn (#449 Indians) and Bill Mazeroski (#517 Pirates), and the Dodgers' Walt Alston and Tom Lasorda (#569).
Does 1973 Topps #237 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 237a - Ear Visible (Coach Lew Burdette's ear is visible beneath his cap) and 237b - Ear Airbrushed Out (Coach Lew Burdette's ear is airbrushed out, leaving a smooth profile). Owning any one of them fills the #237 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.