1973 Topps #9 Johnny Oates
About Johnny Oates
The December 1, 1972 trade that brought Earl Williams to Baltimore sent Oates to Atlanta, but his #9 is a first-series card still printed with the Orioles. In 1973 he hit as high as .310 in late April and finished at .248 in 93 games. A knee ligament strained against the Mets in mid-July kept him out until early September.
Johnny Oates was a defense-first catcher who played from 1970 to 1981 for the Orioles, Braves, Phillies, Dodgers and Yankees, mostly as a reserve, and later managed in the majors. He hit .250 with 14 home runs in 593 games and led American League catchers with a .995 fielding percentage in 1972. He caught eight pitchers with 200 or more wins, among them Gaylord Perry, Steve Carlton, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Jim Palmer, and reached the postseason with the 1976 Phillies and the 1977 and 1978 Dodgers. He took over the Orioles in 1991 and won The Sporting News Manager of the Year award in 1993. With the Texas Rangers he led the club to its first playoff berth in 1996, sharing American League Manager of the Year honors with Joe Torre, and the Rangers won division titles again in 1998 and 1999. He resigned after an 11-17 start in 2001, finishing with a 797-746 record as a manager. He died of brain cancer in 2004 at age 58. Texas retired his number 26, and he is in the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Virginia Tech Sports and Virginia Sports halls of fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 260 | 8 | 80 | 143 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 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: #278 Baltimore Orioles
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- #325 Boog Powell
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #9 card?
It is card #9 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Oates of the Baltimore Orioles.
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.