1978 Topps #273 Fred Norman
About Fred Norman
Fred Norman won a career-high 14 games in 1977, finishing 14-13 with a 3.38 ERA over 221 1/3 innings as Cincinnati slipped to second place. He ran off six wins, then seven straight losses, then five more wins. He married that February, and a son, Joey, was born in 1978. The 1978 Topps #273 pictures him with the Reds; he followed with an 11-9 record that year.
Fred Norman was a left-handed screwball pitcher from San Antonio, Texas. He spent much of the 1960s moving between the minors and brief stints with the Kansas City Athletics and Chicago Cubs, until a shoulder injury forced him to remake himself as a pitcher rather than a thrower. Traded to San Diego in 1971, he finally got to pitch regularly in a major-league rotation. A 1973 trade to Cincinnati made him a member of the Big Red Machine rotation for seven seasons, with double-digit win totals every year. He helped the Reds to four division titles and back-to-back World Series championships in 1975 and 1976, working games in two World Series and three League Championship Series along the way. At 5-foot-8, he threw five pitches - fastball, curve, slider, changeup and screwball - and could use any of them on any count. He won 104 games over 16 major-league seasons and was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2018.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 198 | 81 | 87 | 23 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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: #526 Cincinnati Reds Team
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
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- #20 Pete Rose
- #47 Jack Billingham
- #80 Ken Griffey
- #106 Bill Plummer
- #126 Paul Moskau
- #149 Dale Murray
- #180 Dave Concepcion
- #202 1977 Home Run Leaders
- #203 1977 RBI Leaders
- #220 Pedro Borbon
- #246 Dan Driessen
- #276 Bill Bonham
- #300 Joe Morgan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1978 Topps #273 card?
It is card #273 of the 726-card 1978 Topps Baseball set, picturing Fred Norman of the Cincinnati Reds.
How many cards are in the 1978 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, and 728 collectible states: #23 Bump Wills comes with or without a black circle, and #374 Jose Morales with or without black stitching over the red laces, so the master set counts both states of each.
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.