1963 Topps #352 Ken Johnson
About Ken Johnson
By the time card #352 turned up in the fourth series of 1963, Ken Johnson had a full expansion season behind him. He was Houston's workhorse in the club's inaugural 1962 campaign, starting 31 of his 33 appearances, logging 197 innings and posting a 3.84 ERA while finishing 7-16 for a team that went 64-96-2 and placed eighth among the National League's ten clubs. Two of the franchise's earliest pitching marks were his: on May 2 he struck out 10 Cardinals for Houston's first double-digit strikeout game, and on August 14 he fanned 12 of them to tie the young club record.
Ken Johnson (Kenneth Travis Johnson), born June 16, 1933, in West Palm Beach, Florida, was a 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher who spent 13 major-league seasons, 1958 through 1970, with seven clubs: the Kansas City Athletics, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Colt .45s/Astros, Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Montreal Expos. Naturally left-handed, he threw right-handed because a right-handed glove was the only one his father could find for him as a boy. He debuted for Kansas City on September 13, 1958, and spent almost a decade in the Philadelphia/Kansas City organization before a mid-1961 move to Cincinnati and a new knuckleball finally settled him as a big-league starter. He is remembered as the only pitcher in major-league history to lose a complete-game, nine-inning no-hitter, a 1-0 defeat to Cincinnati on April 23, 1964, while pitching for Houston. Johnson also appeared in the 1961 World Series for the pennant-winning Reds. He finished 91-106 with a 3.46 ERA, 50 complete games and 1,042 strikeouts over 1,737 1/3 innings, and died November 21, 2015, in Pineville, Louisiana.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 237 | 1 | 12 | 110 | 68 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 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: #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 #352 card?
It is card #352 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken Johnson 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.