1964 Topps #317 Al Smith
About Al Smith
Card #317 arrives in the fourth series and puts Smith back in a Cleveland uniform after the Orioles traded him to the Indians following the 1963 season, returning him to the organization that first signed him. The reunion did not take. He batted only .162 in 61 games and was released on August 5, 1964; Boston picked him up as a free agent soon after, and he played his final major league game on October 4, closing a twelve-season career. It is the last of his four cards across the 1961-69 Topps sets.
Alphonse Eugene Smith, nicknamed "Fuzzy" as a teenager for being the first of his friends to sprout a beard, was born February 7, 1928 in Kirkwood, Missouri. He signed with the Negro American League's Cleveland Buckeyes in 1946, joined the Cleveland Indians organization in July 1948, and reached the majors on July 10, 1953. Across twelve big-league seasons with the Indians, White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox he played six positions, mostly the outfield corners and third base, and finished with a .272 average and 164 home runs. He was the everyday leadoff man for the 1954 Indians team that won a then-American League record 111 games, and homered on the first pitch of Game Two of that World Series. In 1955 he batted .306, led the league with 123 runs scored, made the first of his two All-Star teams and placed third in the MVP voting. He reached a second World Series with the 1959 White Sox, where a fan's spilled beer in Game Two doused him and produced one of the sport's most reprinted photographs. Smith ran the Chicago park district's baseball program from 1966 through 1981, and was enshrined in the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame member. He died January 3, 2002.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 233 | 2 | 42 | 110 | 45 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #172 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
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- #77 Jerry Walker
- #105 Woody Held
- #122 Don McMahon
- #133 Jim Grant
- #146 Indians 1964 Rookie Stars
- #184 Al Luplow
- #199 Joe Azcue
- #216 Mike de la Hoz
- #234 Gary Bell
- #253 Wally Post
- #301 Larry Brown
- #338 Jack Kralick
- #367 Fred Whitfield
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #317 card?
It is card #317 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Smith of the Cleveland Indians.
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.