1958 Topps #244 Don Demeter
About Don Demeter
Demeter's rookie card, 1958 Topps #244, comes from the set's third series and shows him with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the club's first season on the West Coast. He was a highly regarded power-hitting outfielder that spring, fresh from a 1957 at St. Paul of the American Association (.309, 28 home runs, 86 RBI in 134 games). Between trips back to St. Paul, he hit .189 with five home runs in 43 games for Los Angeles.
Don Demeter was a 6-foot-4 outfielder who signed with Brooklyn for an $800 bonus out of Capitol Hill High School and played 11 major league seasons (1956-1967) for the Dodgers, Phillies, Tigers, Red Sox and Indians. He won a World Series ring with the 1959 Dodgers, the year he homered three times in one game and became "Dangerous Don" in the papers. Traded to Philadelphia in May 1961, he had his finest season in 1962 - a .307 average, 29 home runs and 107 RBI - and that September began a 266-game errorless streak, the major league record for outfielders until Darren Lewis passed it in 1994. Dealt to Detroit for Jim Bunning after 1963, he later played for Boston and finished with Cleveland in 1967; a late-season physical voided a sale back to Detroit by flagging a heart problem later traced to diet, and he retired before the 1968 season. He batted .265 with 163 home runs and 563 RBI in 1,109 games, then pastored an Oklahoma City Baptist church he helped found. He entered the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and died in 2021 at 86.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 255 | 0 | 10 | 82 | 79 | 42 | 25 | 17 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Don Demeter card?
It is card #244 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Don Demeter, Los Angeles Dodgers.
Is the 1958 Topps Don Demeter #244 a rookie card?
Yes - #244 is a rookie card, one of 103 in the 1958 Topps set.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Don Demeter #244 are there?
PSA has graded 255 copies and SGC 19 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.