1963 Topps #56 Dennis Bennett
About Dennis Bennett
Card #56 sits in the 1963 set's first series, an ordinary low number, and it is Bennett's recognized rookie card. It reports a 1962 rookie season that made him look like a coming ace: 31 games, 24 starts, a 9-9 record and a 3.81 ERA that led the Phillies staff, with seven complete games, two shutouts and 149 strikeouts over 174.2 innings. His first big-league win, on June 2, was a four-hitter that ended a 13-game Los Angeles Dodgers winning streak, and from August 12 to the end of the year he carried a 1.66 ERA that included three straight five-hit complete games.
Dennis Bennett was a 6-foot-3 left-hander born in Oakland, California, on October 5, 1939, and raised in Yreka, a heavily wooded town near the Oregon line. He signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1958 for no bonus, spent four seasons in their farm system, and was called up from Triple-A Buffalo in May 1962. A car accident in Puerto Rico in January 1963, on the way back from a winter-league team picnic, killed the driver and threw Bennett through the windshield, breaking his left ankle, his pelvis and his left shoulder blade. He was back in the Phillies rotation by late June, but the shoulder never healed properly and steadily drained the fastball that had made him a prospect. Philadelphia traded him to the Boston Red Sox in November 1964, and he later pitched briefly for the New York Mets and the California Angels, making his last big-league appearance on September 29, 1968. Over seven major league seasons he went 43-47 with a 3.69 ERA and 572 strikeouts in 182 games, with 28 complete games and six shutouts across 863 innings. He pitched five more Pacific Coast League seasons, then settled in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he ran bars and a restaurant until his death in 2012. He was not elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 266 | 0 | 5 | 110 | 105 | 34 | 9 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #13 Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #29 1963 Rookie Stars
- #32 Tony Gonzalez
- #71 Bobby Wine
- #91 Dallas Green
- #132 Jack Hamilton
- #139 Earl Averill
- #161 Frank Torre
- #192 Clay Dalrymple
- #221 Cookie Rojas
- #241 Billy Smith
- #268 Don Demeter
- #283 Roy Sievers
- #305 Don Hoak
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #56 card?
It is card #56 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dennis Bennett of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Is 1963 Topps #56 a rookie card?
Yes - #56 is the 1963 Topps rookie card of Dennis Bennett.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.