1964 Topps #299 Bill Stafford
About Bill Stafford
Stafford showed up to spring training 29 pounds lighter and aiming at a rotation job, but Jim Bouton and Al Downing had taken the young starters' places and he spent the whole year in the bullpen. The line reads beautifully and means almost nothing: 5-0, a 2.67 earned run average, and 60 innings in 31 appearances, with tendinitis and stamina holding down how far he could go. The New York Times called him one of the most unsuccessful undefeated pitchers in history. It was a fifth straight Yankee pennant and a second straight October watching, this time a World Series loss to the Cardinals. Number 299, a fourth-series card, carries him as a Yankee.
Bill Stafford was a right-handed sinkerballer who spent six of his eight big-league seasons with the New York Yankees. The Yankees signed him out of Coxsackie-Athens High School in upstate New York for $4,000 in June 1957, and he debuted at Fenway Park on August 17, 1960, in the middle of a three-team pennant race. He grew into the number three starter behind Whitey Ford and Ralph Terry, and in 1961 he finished 14-9 with a 2.68 earned run average, second in the American League. Then came April 10, 1963, and a sharp pain in his right shoulder that the club called minor; it was an undiagnosed rotator cuff injury, and he was never the same. He pitched on in New York through 1965, went to the Kansas City Athletics in a June 1966 trade, and threw his last major league pitch in September 1967. His record was 43-40 with a 3.52 ERA over 186 games, and he belonged to five Yankee pennant winners and two world champions. He worked afterward in sales, coached at a Connecticut college and at the high school level, and settled in Michigan, where he died of a heart attack in September 2001 at 63.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 216 | 2 | 20 | 103 | 49 | 22 | 11 | 8 | 1 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Shop 1964 Topps cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
Team card: #433 New York Yankees
More New York Yankees cards:
- #4 1963 American League Pitching Leaders
- #21 Yogi Berra
- #36 Hal Reniff
- #50 Mickey Mantle
- #69 Clete Boyer
- #86 Al Downing
- #100 Elston Howard
- #118 John Blanchard
- #139 World Series Game #4 - Sealing Yanks' Doom
- #164 Bud Daley
- #190 Bobby Richardson
- #206 Steve Hamilton
- #219 Young Aces
- #225 Roger Maris
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #299 card?
It is card #299 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Stafford of the New York Yankees.
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.