1963 Topps #243 Don Leppert
About Don Leppert
Number 243 lands in the third series of 1963 Topps and catches Leppert in his first summer with the Washington Senators. On April 11, the season's third game, he hit three home runs - a solo shot off Ike Delock, then a three-run drive and another solo blast off reliever Chet Nichols - in an 8-0 rout of Boston at D.C. Stadium, the first three-homer game in the expansion Senators' short history, and he caught Tom Cheney's one-hit, 10-strikeout shutout the same night. Ralph Houk picked him as a reserve on the American League All-Star team, though he never got to bat in the July 9 game at Cleveland. He played 73 games and batted .237 for a club that lost 106.
Don Leppert was a right-handed catcher from Indianapolis who signed out of Air Force service ball and needed six minor-league seasons before reaching the majors at 29. The Milwaukee Braves signed him in February 1955, after he had caught for base teams in Japan and in Fort Worth, Texas; at 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds he was a long-ball threat whose catching experience lagged behind his bat. He broke in with the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 18, 1961 and homered in his first major-league at-bat, off Curt Simmons at Forbes Field. Traded to the expansion Washington Senators in December 1962, he hit three home runs in one game in April 1963 and was named to the American League All-Star team that July. He finished with a .229 average, 15 home runs and 59 runs batted in over 190 games, then closed his playing career in the minors in 1966. He coached 18 seasons in the majors for the Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros, worked the first-base line for Pittsburgh's 1971 world champions, and later served as a Minnesota Twins minor-league field coordinator. The Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him in 2003; he died in 2023 at 91.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 437 | 1 | 89 | 242 | 85 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 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
Team card: #131 Washington Senators
More Washington Senators cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #47 Don Lock
- #69 Bud Zipfel
- #94 Bob Schmidt
- #121 Jim Hannan
- #149 Marv Breeding
- #158 1963 Rookie Stars
- #171 Steve Hamilton
- #176 Jim King
- #219 Chuck Cottier
- #263 Dave Stenhouse
- #276 Barry Shetrone
- #291 Don Rudolph
- #311 Joe McClain
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #243 card?
It is card #243 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Leppert of the Washington Senators.
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.