1964 Topps #453 Frank Baumann
About Frank Baumann
The 1963 season made Baumann a left-handed relief specialist and little else. A sore arm cost him most of July and August, and he finished with 24 appearances, a 3.04 ERA and 50 1/3 innings. His lone start that September was the last of his career. Card #453 belongs to the set's sixth print series, a step up in scarcity from the low numbers. It is the last card in this decade of Topps sets to list him with the White Sox.
Frank Baumann, born in St. Louis on July 1, 1933, was a left-handed pitcher who became one of the premier bonus babies of the 1950s. He pitched Central High School to three straight Missouri state titles and closed his prep career with a no-hitter, and on June 19, 1952 he signed with the Boston Red Sox for a reported $86,000 - the highest price ever paid for a free agent's signature at the time. Owner Tom Yawkey called him Beau. Army service during the Korean War interrupted his climb, and the arm trouble he picked up in uniform - the result of endless push-ups, not pitching - shadowed the rest of his career. He debuted for Boston on July 31, 1955 with 5 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for the win, but needed return trips to the minors from 1956 through 1958 before spending all of 1959 in the majors. Boston traded him to the Chicago White Sox that November for Ron Jackson, and in 1960 he went 13-6 and led American League pitchers with a 2.67 ERA. He stayed with Chicago through 1964, moved across town to the Cubs, and finished in 1965 at 45-38 with a 4.11 ERA and 384 strikeouts over 797 1/3 innings. He died in St. Louis on December 13, 2020.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 151 | 1 | 16 | 76 | 38 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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: #496 Chicago White Sox
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #2 1963 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #13 Hoyt Wilhelm
- #31 Dave Nicholson
- #66 Eddie Fisher
- #81 All-Star Vets
- #85 Pete Ward
- #107 White Sox 1964 Rookie Stars
- #130 Gary Peters
- #148 J.C. Martin
- #168 Al Weis
- #195 Floyd Robinson
- #215 Ray Herbert
- #232 Al Lopez
- #247 Dave DeBusschere
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #453 card?
It is card #453 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Baumann of the Chicago White Sox.
Why is #453 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.