1964 Topps #98 Bill Bruton
About Bill Bruton
Number 98 puts Bruton in the 1964 set's first series, the low-number group that opened the year. The season it accompanied was his last. Detroit used him largely off the bench, 106 games with 33 pinch-hitting trips, and he made them count: .277 in 296 at-bats with five home runs, 33 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. He announced his retirement that September with a job waiting at Chrysler, and in his final home game at Tiger Stadium he drove a ball into the upper deck in right field. His last big-league appearance came on October 2, 1964.
Bill Bruton was a center fielder who reached the majors in 1953 at age 27 with the Milwaukee Braves, the year the franchise moved over from Boston. Blessed with exceptional speed, he led the National League in stolen bases in each of his first three seasons, and later added two triples titles and a runs-scored crown in 1960. He played on the pennant-winning 1957 and 1958 Braves, sitting out the 1957 World Series title run with a torn knee ligament and then starring in 1958, when his tenth-inning single won Game 1 and he batted .412 across seven games the Braves lost to the Yankees. In December 1960 Milwaukee traded him to the Detroit Tigers in a multi-player deal centered on Frank Bolling, and he closed a twelve-year career in Detroit from 1961 through 1964, finishing with a .273 average, 94 home runs, 545 RBIs and 207 stolen bases. His father-in-law was Judy Johnson, the Negro Leagues third baseman elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975, whose counsel shaped his development. Bruton spent 23 years as a Chrysler executive after baseball and was inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 1991.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 210 | 0 | 17 | 105 | 59 | 18 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
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: #67 Detroit Tigers
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- #8 1963 American League Batting Leaders
- #12 1963 American League R.B.I. Leaders
- #19 Don Wert
- #39 Hank Aguirre
- #58 Don Demeter
- #128 Mickey Lolich
- #143 Bubba Phillips
- #165 Jerry Lumpe
- #181 Dave Wickersham
- #197 Frank Lary
- #236 Bill Faul
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #98 card?
It is card #98 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Bruton of the Detroit Tigers.
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.