1962 Topps #246 Art Ditmar
About Art Ditmar
Card 246, from the third print series, shows Ditmar back with Kansas City after a 1961 season cut in two. He won his first two starts for the Yankees in April, then went 0-2 with a 5.14 ERA over six May starts and lost his rotation turn in June to Bill Stafford and rookie Rollie Sheldon. On June 14 New York sent him and Deron Johnson to the Athletics for left-hander Bud Daley, whose name sits beside his on card 48 of the previous year's set. Kansas City used him 16 times the rest of the way, mostly in relief, and he finished 2-8. His last big-league appearance came May 19, 1962, in Washington; the Athletics released him six days later.
Arthur John Ditmar, a right-handed pitcher born April 3, 1929, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, grew up across the state in Pittsfield, where he went 14-2 and captained the Pittsfield High team as a senior. He signed with the Philadelphia Athletics for a $1,000 bonus in 1947, served in the Army during the Korean War, and debuted April 19, 1954; that September 26 he beat the Yankees 8-6 for the last victory the Philadelphia Athletics ever recorded. A finesse control pitcher who credited coach George Susce for the sinker that became his best pitch, Ditmar led the Kansas City staff in wins in 1955, then lost a major-league-worst 22 games in 1956. New York bought low, acquiring him and Bobby Shantz in a multiplayer trade on February 19, 1957. He won 47 games in five Yankee seasons, relieving as often as he started behind Whitey Ford, Shantz, Don Larsen and Bob Turley before becoming the staff workhorse in 1959 and 1960, and he earned a ring in the 1958 World Series. Traded back to Kansas City in June 1961, he finished in 1962 at 72-77 with a 3.98 ERA and 552 strikeouts in 1,268 innings. He entered the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015 and died June 11, 2021, at 92.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 345 | 0 | 7 | 179 | 126 | 21 | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Related cards
Team card: #384 Kansas City Athletics Team
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- #305 Jerry Lumpe
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #246 card?
It is card #246 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Art Ditmar of the Kansas City Athletics.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.