1963 Topps #494 Phil Regan
About Phil Regan
Card #494 is a semi-high number from the sixth print series and shows Regan still with the Tigers. The 1963 season was the best he would have as a starter: 15-9 with a 3.86 ERA, 27 starts among 38 appearances, and 115 strikeouts over 189 innings, all career highs. His day came on May 10, when he threw the only shutout of his 13 major league seasons, a three-hitter in a 14-0 rout of Cleveland, and hit the only home run of his career in the same game.
Philip Raymond Regan was a right-handed pitcher from Otsego, Michigan, who lettered in three sports at Wayland High School and spent a year at Western Michigan University before signing with the Detroit Tigers in 1956 for a $2,700 bonus. He reached the majors on July 19, 1960, relieving Jim Bunning against Washington, and worked mostly as a starter in Detroit, going 42-44 over six seasons. A December 1965 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers remade him: pushed into the bullpen behind a rotation of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Don Sutton, he became one of the game's early relief specialists, and Koufax tagged him the Vulture for the wins he kept collecting in the late innings. Regan finished 96-81 with 92 saves and a 3.84 ERA over 13 seasons with the Tigers, Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, then coached for decades: head coach at Grand Valley State, a major league pitching coach in Seattle, Cleveland, Chicago and New York, and manager of the 1995 Baltimore Orioles. He died on July 8, 2026, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 290 | 2 | 33 | 144 | 59 | 37 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 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: #552 Detroit Tigers
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #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
- #25 Al Kaline
- #44 Terry Fox
- #64 Dick McAuliffe
- #84 Ron Kline
- #134 Bob Scheffing
- #140 Frank Lary
- #164 Bubba Morton
- #169 1963 Rookie Stars
- #177 Bubba Phillips
- #218 Tiger Twirlers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #494 card?
It is card #494 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Regan of the Detroit Tigers.
Why is #494 harder to find?
It is a semi-high card from the sixth print series, #447-511 - the run where the set's short prints sit. Scarcer than series 1-5, easier than series 7.
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.