1964 Topps #491 Ed Rakow
About Ed Rakow
From the sixth series, card #491 is Rakow's first Topps card in a Detroit uniform. The Tigers got him on November 18, 1963, when Kansas City sent him, infielder Jerry Lumpe and right-hander Dave Wickersham to Detroit for Rocky Colavito, pitcher Bob Anderson and $50,000. The season behind the card was his last with the Athletics, and it split in two: a torn shoulder muscle in spring training, then an April 12 two-hit shutout of Minnesota and six wins in his first eight decisions, then a June slide and a heel injury suffered covering first base in July. He finished 9-10 with a 3.92 ERA, seven complete games and 104 strikeouts in 174 1/3 innings.
Edward Charles Rakow, born in Pittsburgh on May 30, 1935, was a 5-foot-11 right-hander who pitched parts of seven big-league seasons between 1960 and 1967 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Athletics, Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves, finishing 36-47 with a 4.33 ERA, 20 complete games and 484 strikeouts in 761 1/3 innings. His hometown Pirates turned him away from tryouts, judging neither his fastball nor his 178-pound frame big-league material, and he was driving a truck and pitching semipro ball around Pittsburgh when a chance meeting with Brooklyn Dodgers scout Doc Ruppan at a friend's wedding in October 1956 finally got him a contract. He rose fast enough that an International League official compared him to Don Drysdale in 1959, but arm trouble and a deep Los Angeles staff sent him to Kansas City in March 1961, where he became the Athletics' workhorse and chose to pitch through the shoulder and arm pain that shadowed the rest of his career. He retired in 1968, drove trucks for a living, and in 1989 was a player-coach for the West Palm Beach Tropics of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. He died in West Palm Beach on August 26, 2000.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 162 | 0 | 20 | 82 | 40 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 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
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #6 1963 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #8 1963 American League Batting Leaders
- #12 1963 American League R.B.I. Leaders
- #19 Don Wert
- #39 Hank Aguirre
- #58 Don Demeter
- #98 Bill Bruton
- #128 Mickey Lolich
- #143 Bubba Phillips
- #165 Jerry Lumpe
- #181 Dave Wickersham
- #197 Frank Lary
- #236 Bill Faul
- #250 Al Kaline
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #491 card?
It is card #491 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Rakow of the Detroit Tigers.
Why is #491 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.