1973 Topps #51 Chuck Seelbach
About Chuck Seelbach
Seelbach became Detroit's closer in 1972, going 9-8 with a 2.89 ERA. His 14 saves ranked seventh in the American League. On April 20 he and Tom Timmermann held Baltimore to two hits but lost 1-0 on a Paul Blair home run. On October 3 he retired the Red Sox in order in the ninth, ending on Ben Oglivie's fly ball to Al Kaline in right field, to clinch the AL East. His rookie card is #51 in the first series of 1973 Topps.
Chuck Seelbach was a right-handed reliever whose four major league seasons, 1971 to 1974, were all spent with the Detroit Tigers. With Orleans of the Cape Cod League in 1967 he was named an all-star and no-hit a Chatham team that included Thurman Munson, and at Dartmouth he still ranks among the school's career leaders in winning percentage, strikeouts and shutouts. Detroit took him 12th overall in the 1970 draft, and he debuted on June 29, 1971. He pitched in two games of the 1972 ALCS, which Oakland won three games to two. His last major league game came on May 23, 1974, and his career line was 10-8 with a 3.38 ERA in 75 games. Seelbach later spent more than thirty-nine years teaching European and American history at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio, his high school alma mater, retiring in May 2014. He died in 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 320 | 6 | 149 | 141 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 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: #191 Detroit Tigers
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- #88 Mickey Stanley
- #120 Joe Coleman
- #146 Woodie Fryman
- #168 Jim Northrup
- #218 Aurelio Rodriguez
- #256 Chris Zachary
- #280 Al Kaline
- #304 Duke Sims
- #323 Tigers Field Leaders
- #349 Dick McAuliffe
- #369 Lerrin LaGrow
- #390 Mickey Lolich
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #51 card?
It is card #51 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chuck Seelbach of the Detroit Tigers.
Is 1973 Topps #51 a rookie card?
Yes - #51 is the 1973 Topps rookie card of Chuck Seelbach.
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.