1958 Topps #242 Johnny Klippstein
About Johnny Klippstein
Card #242 in the third series of the 494-card 1958 Topps set shows Johnny Klippstein with Cincinnati. The card follows a 1957 that began with an Opening Day start and turned sour: he was hit hard all year and shuttled between the bullpen and occasional starts. He went 8-11 with a 5.05 ERA in 46 games, 18 of them starts, striking out 99 in 146 innings. Two straight complete-game wins closed the season.
John Calvin Klippstein was a right-handed pitcher who spent 18 seasons in the majors, from his 1950 debut with the Chicago Cubs to a last outing for the Detroit Tigers on May 27, 1967. Born October 17, 1927 in Washington, D.C., he was spotted at 15 at a Cardinals tryout camp in Appleton, Wisconsin, and signed the following spring. He pitched for the Cubs (1950-1954), Cincinnati (1955-1958, 1962), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-1959), Cleveland (1960), Washington (1961), Philadelphia (1963-1964), Minnesota (1964-1966) and Detroit (1967), finishing 101-118 with a 4.24 ERA, 66 saves and 1,158 strikeouts in 1,967 2/3 innings, starting 161 of his 711 games and working out of the bullpen in his later years. Persistent wildness - 97 career wild pitches, with league-leading totals in 1952 and 1961 - earned him the nickname "The Wild Man of Borneo." On May 26, 1956 he held Milwaukee hitless for seven innings, walking seven; Hersh Freeman and Joe Black finished the ninth with the no-hitter still intact before the Braves broke through in the tenth and won it in the eleventh, and a 1991 rules change struck the game from the official no-hitter list. He reached the World Series with the 1959 Dodgers and again with the 1965 Twins. He died October 10, 2003, in Elgin, Illinois.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 248 | 0 | 7 | 84 | 86 | 39 | 21 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 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 Johnny Klippstein card?
It is card #242 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 Johnny Klippstein, Cincinnati Reds.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Johnny Klippstein #242 are there?
PSA has graded 248 copies and SGC 12 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.