1964 Topps #427 Don Rudolph
About Don Rudolph
Card 427 comes out of Topps' fifth series, and it is the last card Rudolph got while he was still an active big leaguer. He carried a 1.38 ERA through that spring, then Washington optioned him to its Toronto farm club the day before Opening Day; he went 3-1 with a 1.40 ERA in 45 innings for the Maple Leafs before a May 21 recall. Used as a reliever and spot starter the rest of the way, he worked 28 games and just over 70 innings, going 1-3 with a 4.09 ERA, and made his final major league appearance on October 3. He said afterward that the Senators had misused him and had shipped him out to clear room for bonus babies.
Frederick Donald Rudolph, a left-hander out of Baltimore, turned pro in 1950 and won 41 games in two seasons for Class D Jesup before the White Sox bought his contract. Army service cost him the 1953 season, and he did not reach the majors until a September 1957 call-up in Chicago. He shuttled between the White Sox, Indianapolis and Louisville before a May 1959 trade sent him to Cincinnati, then rebuilt his stock in the minors, leading the Pacific Coast League with a 2.42 ERA for Seattle in 1960 and taking American Association Player of the Month honors for August 1961 at Indianapolis. Cleveland grabbed him in the Rule 5 draft after 1961 and dealt him to the expansion Washington Senators in May 1962, where he finally won a rotation spot. He was one of the quickest workers in the league - seven of his 23 starts in 1962 took under two hours - and is credited with inspiring the 1963 rule that cut warm-up pitches between innings to five. Off the field he was the husband and manager of burlesque dancer Patti Waggin. He went 18-32 with a 4.00 ERA over six big-league seasons, pitched two more years in the minors, and was killed in 1968, at 37, when his truck overturned near his Granada Hills, California, home.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 204 | 2 | 33 | 104 | 41 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 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: #343 Washington Senators
More Washington Senators cards:
- #28 Claude Osteen
- #46 Ed Brinkman
- #52 Chuck Hinton
- #92 Steve Ridzik
- #114 Don Lock
- #134 Don Zimmer
- #167 Senators 1964 Rookie Stars
- #187 Ed Roebuck
- #203 John Kennedy
- #217 Jim King
- #261 Jim Hannan
- #277 Ken Retzer
- #294 Ken Hunt
- #311 Tom Brown
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #427 card?
It is card #427 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Rudolph of the Washington Senators.
Why is #427 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.