1964 Topps #493 Don Lee
About Don Lee
The Angels moved Lee back toward relief in 1964, and the shorter outings agreed with him. He appeared in 33 games, started only eight, saved two and went 5-4, with a 2.72 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 89 1/3 innings, about 7.4 per nine. Both marks are the best of any season in which he worked more than 20 innings. Card #493 comes from the sixth series of the 1964 Topps set and lists him with the Los Angeles Angels.
Donald Edward Lee, a 6-foot-4 right-hander born February 26, 1934, in Globe, Arizona, pitched at the University of Arizona before the Detroit Tigers signed him as an amateur free agent in June 1956. He debuted for Detroit in April 1957, went to the Milwaukee Braves in an October 1959 trade, and landed in Washington that November when the Senators took him in the Rule 5 draft. He moved with that franchise to Minnesota, then pitched for the Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, making his last appearance in August 1966. A swingman who shuttled between the rotation and the bullpen, Lee peaked in 1962, when a season divided between the Twins and Angels produced career highs of 11 wins, 102 strikeouts, two shutouts and 205 1/3 innings. Nine seasons left him 40-44 with a 3.61 ERA, 467 strikeouts and 11 saves in 244 games. His father was Thornton Lee, a 22-game winner for the 1941 White Sox, and the two share an oddity: Ted Williams is the only man to homer off both a father and his son, reaching Thornton in September 1939 and Don in September 1960.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 240 | 1 | 27 | 134 | 55 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #493 card?
It is card #493 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Lee of the Los Angeles Angels.
Why is #493 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.