1964 Topps #47 Giants Rookie Stars - Jesus Alou / Ron Herbel
On this card: Jesus Alou, Ron Herbel
About this card
This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
The story on this card
1964 Topps #47 is a Rookie Stars card shared with fellow San Francisco Giants prospect Ron Herbel from the set's first print series; checklist reference guides count it as Alou's rookie card rather than Herbel's. It captures Alou in his first full big-league season, when he started 83 games in the outfield, hit .274 with three home runs, and had a memorable afternoon on July 10 going 6-for-6 with a home run against six different Chicago Cubs pitchers. Dominican outfielder and the youngest of the three Alou brothers, a free-swinging contact hitter who rarely struck out across a 15-year career with four clubs.
Card #47, 'Giants 1964 Rookie Stars,' is a series-one issue pairing Herbel with Jesus Alou, and it is the second straight year Topps ran him in a Rookie Stars group. There was almost nothing for the back to report: a September call-up was the whole of his big-league record at press time. The rookie-card credit on this one goes to Alou alone. The spring it appeared, Herbel started wearing glasses after nearsightedness was diagnosed in camp, and he took his first big-league at-bat on May 6 against Larry Jackson of the Cubs, striking out. Ron Herbel was a San Francisco Giants pitcher through most of the 1960s, a journeyman right-hander remembered today less for his 42 career wins than for a .029 career batting average, the lowest in major-league history among players with 100 or more at-bats.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac (Ron Herbel) · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 355 | 0 | 19 | 144 | 110 | 34 | 22 | 22 | 4 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 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: #257 San Francisco Giants
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #3 1963 National League Pitching Leaders
- #9 1963 National League Home Run Leaders
- #18 Billy O'Dell
- #41 Friendly Foes
- #82 Jim Davenport
- #99 Al Stanek
- #123 Jose Pagan
- #150 Willie Mays
- #169 Del Crandall
- #189 Bob Hendley
- #204 Matty Alou
- #222 Bill Pierce
- #242 Harvey Kuenn
- #280 Juan Marichal
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #47 card?
It is card #47 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jesus Alou and Ron Herbel. This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
Is 1964 Topps #47 a rookie card?
Yes - #47 is the rookie card of Jesus Alou. Ron Herbel had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
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.