1963 Topps #518 Don Blasingame
About Don Blasingame
His 1963 card, #518, is a high number from the set's seventh series, the only high number among his five Topps cards of the decade and the toughest of them to pull. It reports his best year in Cincinnati: a .281 average in 141 games in 1962, with 139 hits, 77 runs, 2 home runs and 35 RBI as the Reds' regular second baseman, up almost sixty points from the pennant season before it.
Don Blasingame, a native of Corinth, Mississippi, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953 and entered pro ball as a shortstop before being taught second base. His speed with the Class AA Houston Buffaloes in 1954 - a .315 season with a career-best 34 stolen bases - got him tagged "Blazing-game," soon shortened to "The Blazer." He debuted on September 20, 1955, took the second-base job in 1956, and made his only All-Star team in 1958, pinch-hitting for Warren Spahn. Trades then carried him to San Francisco, Cincinnati and Washington, and the Senators sold him to Kansas City in August 1966, where he played his last big league game. At his retirement no big leaguer had grounded into fewer double plays per at-bat, a mark Don Buford later passed. Blasingame then spent fifteen years in Japan as a player, coach and manager for the Nankai Hawks, also coaching Hiroshima and managing the Hanshin Tigers, before joining the Philadelphia Phillies in player development. He entered the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and died of a heart attack in Fountain Hills, Arizona, in 2005.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 384 | 3 | 40 | 201 | 88 | 27 | 20 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 26 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 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: #63 Cincinnati Reds
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #1 1962 National League Batting Leaders
- #3 1962 National League Home Run Leaders
- #5 1962 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #21 Marty Keough
- #29 1963 Rookie Stars
- #37 Jerry Lynch
- #70 Jim O'Toole
- #90 Gordy Coleman
- #116 Jim Brosnan
- #133 Gene Freese
- #158 1963 Rookie Stars
- #178 Johnny Edwards
- #194 Joe Nuxhall
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #518 card?
It is card #518 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Blasingame of the Cincinnati Reds.
Why is #518 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #512-576 - the last and scarcest run in the set. Price guides often band the highs as #523-576, but the printing break falls between #511 and #512.
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.