1973 Topps #504 Earl Williams
About Earl Williams
In his first American League season, Williams batted .237, hit a team-leading 22 home runs and drove in 83 runs. Earl Weaver kept him out of a game after he missed the team bus to Fenway Park on June 24. His Game 3 ALCS homer off Ken Holtzman was Baltimore's only run in a 2-1, 11-inning loss. Fourth-series 1973 Topps #504 listed him with Baltimore.
Earl Williams was a right-handed power hitter who won the 1971 National League Rookie of the Year award as a catcher. The Milwaukee Braves made him the sixth overall pick in the August phase of the 1965 draft out of Montclair High School in New Jersey, where he had been a pitcher, and he gave up a scholarship to Ithaca College to sign. After one season on the mound in 1966 he moved to first base and the outfield, and Atlanta began converting him to catcher before 1970. He hit more than 25 home runs in each of his first two full seasons, then went to Baltimore after 1972 in a blockbuster that sent Davey Johnson, Pat Dobson, Johnny Oates and Roric Harrison to the Braves. Two years with the Orioles were followed by a trade back to Atlanta for pitcher Jimmy Freeman, a June 1976 sale to Montreal, and a final season with Oakland in 1977. Williams died in 2013 at age 64.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Print variations
Two states of #504 are tracked individually: 504a - No Gap In Border and 504b - Gaps In Left And Right Borders. The difference is on the front of the card (print flaw).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 504a - No Gap In Border | |||||||||
| PSA | 86 | 4 | 23 | 40 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 504b - Gaps In Left And Right Borders | |||||||||
| PSA | 34 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Not designated by PSA | |||||||||
| PSA | 96 | 1 | 13 | 68 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation; PSA slabs whose label names no variation are listed as not designated, while SGC slabs whose label names no variation are counted under 504a - No Gap In Border.
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Related cards
Team card: #278 Baltimore Orioles
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #9 Johnny Oates
- #34 Pat Dobson
- #56 Merv Rettenmund
- #90 Brooks Robinson
- #109 Doyle Alexander
- #136 Orioles Field Leaders
- #160 Jim Palmer
- #183 Don Buford
- #229 Roric Harrison
- #253 Mark Belanger
- #302 Terry Crowley
- #325 Boog Powell
- #341 Jim Palmer
- #362 Eddie Watt
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #504 card?
It is card #504 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Earl Williams of the Baltimore Orioles.
Does 1973 Topps #504 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 504a - No Gap In Border (The black borders on both sides of Earl Williams's portrait are unbroken - the corrected printing) and 504b - Gaps In Left And Right Borders (Gaps break the black borders on both the left and right sides of Earl Williams's portrait - the error printing). Owning any one of them fills the #504 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.