1964 Topps #370 Hal Woodeshick


About Hal Woodeshick
Card No. 370 comes from the fourth series. The season it carries was the best of his eleven, as Woodeshick led the National League with 23 saves, backed by a 2.76 ERA for the Colt .45s. He had a hand in eleven of Houston's first 21 victories - ten saves and a win - while running a 1.25 ERA, and although a midsummer rough patch more than doubled that figure, he closed untouchable: five hits and no runs over his last ten appearances, a span of 12 innings. Rival clubs had spent the winter trying to trade for him.
Harold Joseph Woodeshick, born August 24, 1932, in Askam, Pennsylvania, in the coal country outside Wilkes-Barre, signed with the Phillies at seventeen and needed a decade to stick. Two Army years as a military policeman and a long minor league apprenticeship slowed him; brief looks with Detroit in 1956 and Cleveland in 1958 led only to two seasons of swing work for the original Washington Senators. Expansion remade the left-hander's career. Drafted by the new Senators in December 1960, traded back to Detroit in June 1961 and sold to Houston that October, he became one of only three players to play two straight seasons for two different expansion teams in their inaugural campaigns. The Colt .45s turned him into their first true closer in 1963, a 1.97 ERA earning his only All-Star selection, and he led the National League with 23 saves in 1964. Traded to St. Louis in 1965, he finished on the 1967 World Series champion Cardinals and retired at 44-62 with 61 saves and a 3.56 ERA. He was nicknamed the Switchman for his knack of turning out the lights on opposing batters, and died in Houston in 2009 at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 235 | 3 | 47 | 124 | 35 | 18 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 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
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #23 Chris Zachary
- #38 Jim Wynn
- #56 Hal Brown
- #109 Rusty Staub
- #121 Pete Runnels
- #142 John Bateman
- #158 Ken Johnson
- #179 Carl Warwick
- #205 Nellie Fox
- #226 Colts 1964 Rookie Stars
- #241 Jim Owens
- #256 Johnny Weekly
- #282 Bob Bruce
- #298 Harry Craft
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #370 card?
It is card #370 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Woodeshick of the Houston Colt .45's.
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.