1964 Topps #494 Al Jackson
About Al Jackson
It caught Jackson at his peak reputation, when The Sporting News was calling him the man likeliest to become Shea Stadium's first 20-game winner. He did give the new park its first Mets win, a 6-0 shutout of Pittsburgh on April 19, and he closed the year by beating Bob Gibson 1-0 on October 2 while St. Louis was fighting for the pennant. The line: 11-16, a 4.26 ERA, 31 starts, 11 complete games and three shutouts, leading the club in wins and shutouts.
Alvin Neill Jackson, born December 26, 1935 in Waco, Texas, was a 5-foot-10 left-hander who pitched ten major league seasons between 1959 and 1969 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. The 13th of 13 children, he attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and signed with Pittsburgh in 1955, but the Pirates used him in only 11 games across 1959 and 1961 and left him unprotected for the National League expansion draft of October 1961. The Mets took him 22nd overall, and he became the young franchise's most durable starter; his 43 Mets wins stood as the club record until Tom Seaver passed the mark in 1969. Two seasons in St. Louis brought the best pitching of his life and a World Series ring, after which he returned to New York. He finished 67-99 with a 3.98 ERA, 54 complete games, 14 shutouts and 738 strikeouts. Jackson later coached for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Mets and spent decades as a Mets minor league pitching instructor. He died in 2019 at 83 and was honored posthumously in 2021 with the Mets Hall of Fame Achievement Award.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 215 | 3 | 25 | 108 | 57 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #494 card?
It is card #494 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Jackson of the New York Mets.
Why is #494 harder to find?
It is a series 5-6 card. Cards from the fifth and sixth print series (#371-522) are a step tougher to find than #1-370; availability in 1964 runs in three tiers, not a cliff.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.