1963 Topps #401 Jim Bouton
About Jim Bouton
Card #401 is Bouton's first Topps card to himself, a series-5 Yankees issue that reached candy counters in the middle of the 1963 season. Its back carries only his debut year, split between relief and spot starting, 7-7 with a 3.99 ERA across 36 games, because that is all Topps had to work with. Nothing on the card hints that the 24-year-old right-hander had moved into the starting rotation on May 12 and was pitching his way toward a 249-inning workload and twelve complete games.
Jim Bouton signed with the New York Yankees for a $30,000 bonus and reached the majors in April 1962, working as a swingman for a club that won the World Series that fall; his tenacity on the mound earned him the nickname Bulldog. He broke through in 1963 at 21-7 with a 2.53 ERA and made his only All-Star team, then went 18-13 in 1964 and won both of his World Series starts as the Yankees fell to St. Louis in seven games. His career World Series mark is 2-1 with a 1.48 ERA across three starts. A sore bicep in 1965 cost him his fastball, and after several losing seasons he rebuilt himself around a knuckleball, carrying him to the expansion Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros in 1969. He turned that season into Ball Four (1970), a diary whose candor about clubhouse drinking, amphetamines and womanizing drew a public rebuke from Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who called it detrimental to baseball; it later became the only sports book on the New York Public Library's Books of the Century list. He pitched once more in the majors, for Atlanta in 1978 after an eight-year absence, and later worked as a broadcaster and actor. He died on July 10, 2019, at 80, of cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 337 | 1 | 11 | 108 | 114 | 59 | 23 | 21 | 0 |
| SGC | 44 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
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: #247 New York Yankees
More New York Yankees cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #4 1962 American League Home Run Leaders
- #6 1962 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #20 Tony Kubek
- #38 Bud Daley
- #42 Stan Williams
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #60 Elston Howard
- #92 Hector Lopez
- #120 Roger Maris
- #142 World Series Game #1 - Yanks' Ford Wins Series Opener
- #144 World Series Game #3 - Maris Sparks Yankee Rally
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #401 card?
It is card #401 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Bouton of the New York Yankees.
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.