1973 Topps #12 Padres Field Leaders - Don Zimmer / Dave Garcia / Johnny Podres / Bob Skinner / Whitey Wietelmann
On this card: Don Zimmer, Dave Garcia, Johnny Podres, Bob Skinner, Whitey Wietelmann
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 Padres Field Leaders (Don Zimmer / Dave Garcia / Johnny Podres / Bob Skinner / Whitey Wietelmann)
San Diego promoted third-base coach Zimmer to manager on April 27, 1972, after 11 games under Preston Gomez. Zimmer went 54-88 over the rest of the season. The Padres' first-series 1973 Topps #12 grouped him with coaches Dave Garcia, Johnny Podres, Bob Skinner and Whitey Wietelmann. Don Zimmer played winter baseball for Santurce in Puerto Rico. The infielder batted .400 with three home runs and was named MVP of the 1955 Caribbean Series.
Garcia began 1973 on the San Diego Padres coaching staff, a job he had held since 1970, after joining the organization as a minor league manager in 1969. His first-series card, 1973 Topps #12, lists Don Zimmer, Garcia, Johnny Podres, Bob Skinner and Whitey Wietelmann with San Diego. Dave Garcia spent over 65 years in professional baseball and won 889 games as a minor league manager. He managed the Angels from 1977 to 1978 and the Indians from 1979 to 1982, for a career major league record of 310-311.
In 1972, Podres coached pitchers in San Diego's minor league system. Don Zimmer recalled having promised him a pitching-coach job if he became a major league manager; Podres joined his Padres staff in 1973. Card #12, from the first series, shows Zimmer with coaches Dave Garcia, Podres, Bob Skinner and Whitey Wietelmann. An unlikely Game 7 starter for Brooklyn, Podres shut out the Yankees 2-0 in 1955 for the only title the borough ever won and the first World Series MVP award, and finished with four rings, All-Star nods in 1958, 1960 and 1962, and 148 wins.
Skinner stayed on San Diego's coaching staff through the 1972 managerial change from Preston Gomez to Don Zimmer. The Padres' #12 in the first series of 1973 Topps grouped him with Zimmer and coaches Dave Garcia, Johnny Podres and Whitey Wietelmann. Pirates left fielder Bob Skinner took up handball to learn the angles of balls hit off Forbes Field's wall and scoreboard, an exercise Danny Murtaugh described while discussing his outfielder's work on defense.
Wietelmann wore No. 19 as a coach on the 1972 Padres, who used two managers, Preston Gomez and Don Zimmer, and finished 58-95, last in the six-team NL West. His card in the 1973 set is #12, a first-series manager-and-coaches card that also carries Zimmer, Dave Garcia, Johnny Podres and Bob Skinner, all printed with San Diego. Whitey Wietelmann was a switch-hitting infielder for the Boston Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1939 to 1947, the Braves' regular shortstop in 1943 and 1944. He later coached the San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1979.
Sources: Wikipedia (Don Zimmer) · Wikipedia (Dave Garcia) · Wikipedia (Johnny Podres) · Wikipedia (Bob Skinner) · Wikipedia (Whitey Wietelmann) · SABR BioProject (Don Zimmer) · SABR BioProject (Johnny Podres) · SABR BioProject (Bob Skinner) · SABR BioProject (Bob Elliott) · Baseball Almanac (Don Zimmer) · Baseball Almanac (Johnny Podres) · Retrosheet · MLB.com (1) · MLB.com (2) · MLB.com (3) · MLB.com (4) · BaseballCardPedia
Print variations
Two states of #12 are tracked individually: 12a - Ear Faded and 12b - Orange Background (Ear Visible). 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12a - Ear Faded | |||||||||
| PSA | 144 | 5 | 32 | 80 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 12b - Orange Background (Ear Visible) | |||||||||
| PSA | 160 | 5 | 49 | 77 | 18 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 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; SGC slabs whose label names no variation are counted under 12a - Ear Faded.
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Related cards
Team card: #316 San Diego Padres
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- #112 Gary Ross
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- #221 Fred Kendall
- #244 Ed Acosta
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- #294 Steve Arlin
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #12 card?
It is card #12 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Zimmer, Dave Garcia, Johnny Podres, Bob Skinner and Whitey Wietelmann. 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).
Whose ear changes between the two #12 printings?
Catalogs disagree. They agree that the two printings of #12 Padres Field Leaders differ in a coach's ear and the background tints, but some name Dave Garcia's left ear and others Johnny Podres's right ear.
Does 1973 Topps #12 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 12a - Ear Faded (Dave Garcia's left ear is faded into the background, and the other coaches' portraits have graduated tints, darker at the top. Catalogs disagree on whose ear tells the two printings apart: some name Dave Garcia's left ear, others Johnny Podres's right ear) and 12b - Orange Background (Ear Visible) (Dave Garcia's left ear is visible, and the coaches' portraits have single-color orange backgrounds. Catalogs disagree on whose ear tells the two printings apart: some name Dave Garcia's left ear, others Johnny Podres's right ear). Owning any one of them fills the #12 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.