1961 Topps #439 Phil Regan
About Phil Regan
Card #439 places Regan with the Detroit Tigers in the fifth print series, and collectors treat it as his recognized rookie card. The 1961 season was his first full one: 32 appearances, 16 of them starts, a 10-7 record with six complete games and a 5.25 ERA across 120 innings, and the first win of his career, against Baltimore. He also beat the Yankees twice that summer, both complete games, one on a packed Friday night in Detroit that pushed the Tigers into first place.
Philip Raymond Regan was a right-handed pitcher from Otsego, Michigan, who lettered in three sports at Wayland High School and spent a year at Western Michigan University before signing with the Detroit Tigers in 1956 for a $2,700 bonus. He reached the majors on July 19, 1960, relieving Jim Bunning against Washington, and worked mostly as a starter in Detroit, going 42-44 over six seasons. A December 1965 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers remade him: pushed into the bullpen behind a rotation of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Don Sutton, he became one of the game's early relief specialists, and Koufax tagged him the Vulture for the wins he kept collecting in the late innings. Regan finished 96-81 with 92 saves and a 3.84 ERA over 13 seasons with the Tigers, Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, then coached for decades: head coach at Grand Valley State, a major league pitching coach in Seattle, Cleveland, Chicago and New York, and manager of the 1995 Baltimore Orioles. He died on July 8, 2026, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · FanGraphs · The Baseball Cube
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 328 | 1 | 22 | 156 | 104 | 24 | 14 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Team card: #51 Detroit Tigers Team
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- #151 Jim Donohue
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- #208 Larry Osborne
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #439 card?
It is card #439 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Regan of the Detroit Tigers.
Is 1961 Topps #439 a rookie card?
Yes - #439 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Phil Regan.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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 2026-10-05.