Brooks Robinson and the Baltimore Orioles

[ksfarmboy]

I had the football, never ordered the baseball for some reason. The football ones are on a thinner glossy type stock.

[Chstrite]

Good morning. This week I will share with you the 1976 Brooks entries to the Master. The 1976 Hostess Panel and Hand Cut cards are both high quality cards. The 1976 Hostess in my opinion is so much nicer than 1975. Here, the panel is a PSA 9 with 2 peers and 1 graded higher; the single hand cut card is also a PSA 9 with 11 peers and 2 graded higher. Next, you see the Topps 1976 as a PSA 9. This card is easy to find at this grade (192 peers). There are 14 PSA 10, which I am looking for. The OPC 1976 PSA 7 is a high graded card with 4 peers and 9 graded higher. The Orioles Team Topps card is a PSA 10, with 39 peers. The OPC Orioles Team Card is a PSA 8 with 5 peers and 3 graded higher. The 1976 Orioles Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is graded as a PSA 6 with 1 peer and 2 graded higher. The 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee card is very nice as a PSA 10 with 22 peers. This card is part of a 32 card set with plenty of HoF'ers. The 1976 Brooks Post Card PSA 10 has 2 peers. The 1976 Chicken Lid is a PSA 1.5, which was graded recently. Forgive me, but i forgot to include this in the picture and had to paste it in. The Chicken Lid is hard to find. I have the entire set. There is a 1983 set, too. I have requested PSA add this 1976 lid to the master set. Surprisingly, no other Brooks Chicken Lids are graded. Next, you will see all of the 1976 Discs. All but one of these are PSA 10s (Town Club, Safelon, Carousel, MSA Blank Back, Orbakers, Crane Chips, Dairy Isle, Buckmans, and Isaly's Sweek Williams). The Dairy Isle PSA 10 has 3 peers, while the others have dozens or more. The discs are plentiful and affordable. The PSA 9 Red Barn Disc is a tough one to find high graded. This PSA 9 has 3 peers and there are 2 PSA 10s out there. We are down to 2 more years. See you next week with 1977 (more of the dreaded Discs).

[Mark70Z]

Originally Posted by Chstrite

Good morning. This week I will share with you the 1976 Brooks entries to the Master. The 1976 Hostess Panel and Hand Cut cards are both high quality cards. The 1976 Hostess in my opinion is so much nicer than 1975. Here, the panel is a PSA 9 with 2 peers and 1 graded higher; the single hand cut card is also a PSA 9 with 11 peers and 2 graded higher. Next, you see the Topps 1976 as a PSA 9. This card is easy to find at this grade (192 peers). There are 14 PSA 10, which I am looking for. The OPC 1976 PSA 7 is a high graded card with 4 peers and 9 graded higher. The Orioles Team Topps card is a PSA 10, with 39 peers. The OPC Orioles Team Card is a PSA 8 with 5 peers and 3 graded higher. The 1976 Orioles Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is graded as a PSA 6 with 1 peer and 2 graded higher. The 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee card is very nice as a PSA 10 with 22 peers. This card is part of a 32 card set with plenty of HoF'ers. The 1976 Brooks Post Card PSA 10 has 2 peers. The 1976 Chicken Lid is a PSA 1.5, which was graded recently. Forgive me, but i forgot to include this in the picture and had to paste it in. The Chicken Lid is hard to find. I have the entire set. There is a 1983 set, too. I have requested PSA add this 1976 lid to the master set. Surprisingly, no other Brooks Chicken Lids are graded. Next, you will see all of the 1976 Discs. All but one of these are PSA 10s (Town Club, Safelon, Carousel, MSA Blank Back, Orbakers, Crane Chips, Dairy Isle, Buckmans, and Isaly's Sweek Williams). The Dairy Isle PSA 10 has 3 peers, while the others have dozens or more. The discs are plentiful and affordable. The PSA 9 Red Barn Disc is a tough one to find high graded. This PSA 9 has 3 peers and there are 2 PSA 10s out there. We are down to 2 more years. See you next week with 1977 (more of the dreaded Discs).

Great looking Brooksie items! I especially like the English Chicken Lid and the Hostess. Also, I’m a fan of the discs just because they’re fun to try and acquire all of the different varieties and of course in your boat trying to get them all in high grade. Hey, find me a ‘76 Dairy Isle in a PSA10 please (mines not that nice..).

By the way do you try and get the stamp back versions as well?

[Chstrite]

Mark, I enjoy the discs but there are so many between 76 and 77. I have an extra Dairy Isle PSA 9...no extra 10s. Never got into the different stamps on the back. Take care.

[Chstrite]

Good Sunday morning to you. This week I will write about the 1977 entries to Brooks' PSA Master Set. This weeks entries total 16 and more than half of those are "discs." Starting at the top left, is the 1977-79 Sportstcaster (Printed in Italy). This example is a PSA 9; there are 6 other PSA 9s and one PSA 10. This set includes over 2,000 multi-sport entries. The Brooks card is not expensive and plenty are available. On the back, there are details about Brooks. Next, you will see two Orioles Post Cards of Brooks...the Light Background version (PSA 10 with 2 peers) and mis-labled Dark Background version (PSA 10 with 1 peer). The two post cards are part of the 1977 Orioles Team Set including over 30 entries, depending on what you reference. These are available routinely in lesser grades but the PSA 10s are surprisingly expensive and just not available (it is hit or miss with PSA on grading the Post Cards). Next is the Sertoma Stars Brooks PSA 9 (nine peers with 2 PSA 10s). This card is part of a 24 card set with tons of HoF'ers. Finding a high graded copy of this card can be difficult. Next is the Topps Brooks card graded a PSA 9, which are plentiful and affordable. There are 178 total PSA 9s and eighteen PSA 10s (yes...I want a 10!). I am not a huge fan of the 1977 Topps card but it is Brooks so I have to love it. The PSA 9 Topps Orioles Team Card is a PSA 9 (64 peers) with 12 PSA 10s. I like this card with the dark Orange (almost red) jerseys. The Orioles Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is a PSA 5 and highest graded with 3 peers. These are not easy to find but affordable. One of my favorite discs is the 1977 Brooks Burger Chef Funnel Discs from my favorite childhood fast food joint. The Burger Chef Disc is smaller than the others. I have several of these at various grades and have given up on finding one of the 3 PSA 10s; I have sent at least 4 to PSA for grading and continue to strike out on receiving a PSA 10. The PSA 9 here has 17 peers. The other 8 discs are all PSA 10s minus the Dairy Isle, which is a PSA 9 (1 peer and 5 PSA 10s exist). The discs include the Zip Z (19 peers), Wendy's (1 peer...this one was very hard to find at this grade), SAGA (4 peers), MSA Customized Sports (9 peers), Holiday Inn (16 peers), Detroit Caesars (7 peers), and Chilly Willy (11 peers). I hope you enjoyed this week's post. Next week will be my final posting with 1978 with 6 entries.

[roarfrom34]

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. hitting his only three Home Run game of his career....Ironically his third HR was a Grand Slam and tied Eddie Murray for the most career Orioles homers (333)...Also brother Bill homered in this game as well, marking the 2nd (and last) time that they homered in the same game:

[Chstrite]

Good evening! This week is Brooks' final year in the PSA Master. In 1978 he had 5 cards. This was one of the smaller years featured on a card or item in the Master. First off, you will see the PSA 9 TCMA Stars of the 1960s. This card has 7 peers and 3 graded at the PSA 10 level. This set has 293 cards featuring photos from Mike Aronstein's library of photos. I enjoy the photos from this set and is full of HoF'ers. Next, is the 1978 Orioles Topps Team Card. This PSA 9 is fairly common with 62 peers and 25 graded as PSA 10. The Topps Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is tied highest graded with 1 peer. This card is hard to find at this condition. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker Brooks issue is a PSA 10 GEM, which was fairly pricy and very difficult to find for me despite having 14 peers. The 1978 O Pee Chee PSA 9 has 24 peers and one PSA 10. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker card is one of several players featured achieving a significant event in their career. The 1977 campaign for Brooks was his 23d season in uniform with the Orioles establishing a record of longevity with one ballclub. Sadly, this will be my last week featuring a year in the Brooks Master. It was a lot of fun writing for the past 6 months about the PSA Master featuring Brooks His cards are plentiful with many exceptions, especially the lower population cards. I am very partial to the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s and having Brooks in the middle of those years both with Topps and all the oddball cards is very exciting. Several weeks ago, I actually completed the Brooks PSA Master set. The last card needed was the 1975 NST Mr. Baseball Japan Card/Sticker from the Nagashima set featuring Brooks in uniform. The PSA Master Set for Brooks has 272 total items. I did some research on other popular HOF players from that era such as Yaz, Mays, Clemente, Mantle, Aaron, Gibson and others and was surprised to learn that none of them were complete. Many were short a few cards, but again, incomplete. My set has a qualitative score of 7.05. It is ranked number 2 (sad face). The number 1 Brooks set is 96% complete with a qualitative score of 8.07. The difference between my #2 set and the #1 set in terms of grades is significantly different. For example, if I own a card that has a mid value or weight graded as a PSA 5 and find a PSA 10, it will only increase my score by .002. I would likely take me tens of thousands of dollars and 100 increased graded cards to overtake the #1 set. My set has a lot of items that are #1 / highest population (16) and 69 tied for highest grade / population. Within my set there are a number of items that no one else has. I have 6 items at PSA waiting to be added to the Master and another 10 or so at PSA being graded that I hope to add, too. Once PSA opens, I have a handful of items to send for grading and addition (i.e., 1968 Brooks/Franke OPC Champs #1, 1964 Martin Marietta Family Night, 1974 OPC Orioles Team Card and a few 1967/68 Coca Cola / Fanta / Tab / Sprite Soda Caps. Sadly, as you add items with my score, your qualitative score decreases unless you are adding PSA 7 - 10s. Needless to say, my OCD and endless quest to slay new or improved graded Brooks cards is fun while exhausting. The Brooks collection keeps me in the hobby and allows me to meet many people to include as many as 10 folks on this string. Anyway, I hope the weekly posts have been educational and enjoyable. For those of you that do not like PSA, my apologies but hope I have clarified a few things along the way. I will pop in frequently with Brooks items so see you soon. Happy Collecting.

[Mark70Z]

Originally Posted by roarfrom34

Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. hitting his only three Home Run game of his career....Ironically his third HR was a Grand Slam and tied Eddie Murray for the most career Orioles homers (333)...Also brother Bill homered in this game as well, marking the 2nd (and last) time that they homered in the same game:

Bill,

That is an AWESOME ticket!