1963 Topps #277 Dick Farrell
About Dick Farrell
Two 1963 cards, both from the early series. #9 is a League Leaders card built on the 1962 National League strikeout list: Farrell's 203 sits among the five arms pictured, with Don Drysdale's league-leading 232 plus Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Billy O'Dell. His own card, #277 in the third series, carries the wreckage of Houston's 64-96 first year - 10-20 with a 3.02 ERA across 43 games and 241 innings. No 20-game loser since Jesse Haines in 1920 had finished with a better ERA, and Farrell was still the expansion club's only All-Star that summer, named to both of the two All-Star Games played that year.
Richard Joseph "Turk" Farrell was a 6-foot-4 right-hander whose 14 major-league seasons (1956-1969) were all in the National League, with the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston's Colt .45s/Astros. Born in Boston on April 8, 1934, he was stricken with polio before his second birthday, wore a leg brace until he was six and was left with a permanent limp and a left foot an inch and a half shorter than his right. The nickname came from his father Tom, a big man who kept the graves at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline and was known as Big Turk. Signed by the Phillies out of St. Mary's High School in Brookline in 1953, Farrell threw a fastball hitters dreaded, and with Jack Meyer and Jim Owens he formed Philadelphia's hard-living Dalton Gang. He was picked for the National League All-Star squad in 1958, 1962, 1964 and 1965, twice over in 1962, when the majors staged two All-Star Games. He finished 106-111 with a 3.45 ERA, 83 saves and 1,177 strikeouts in 590 games. Farrell was killed in a car accident in Great Yarmouth, England, on June 10, 1977, at 43, while working as a safety supervisor on North Sea oil rigs; in 2020 he was revealed to be the biological father of big-league pitcher Richard Dotson.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 203 | 0 | 9 | 92 | 76 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 2 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 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
More Dick Farrell in this set: #9 League Leaders
Team card: #312 Houston Colt .45's
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #9 1962 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #24 Bob Bruce
- #45 Bob Aspromonte
- #77 Al Spangler
- #99 Jim Umbricht
- #119 Bob Lillis
- #141 Manny Mota
- #153 Hal Smith
- #158 1963 Rookie Stars
- #189 Dave Giusti
- #204 Don Nottebart
- #208 1963 Rookie Stars
- #230 Pete Runnels
- #262 Ellis Burton
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #277 card?
It is card #277 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dick Farrell of the Houston Colt .45's.
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.