1964 Topps #259 Harry Bright
About Harry Bright
The card looks back at a full season in the Bronx. Bright got into 60 games for the 1963 Yankees at first, at third, in the outfield and as a pinch hitter, batting .236 with seven home runs in 157 at-bats as New York took a fourth straight pennant. Los Angeles then swept the Series. Bright batted twice and struck out twice - first to end Game 1 as Sandy Koufax's record fifteenth strikeout victim, then against Johnny Podres the next afternoon. Number 259 sits in the third series of the 1964 Topps set; Bright would play just four games for the 1964 Yankees before spending the season with Triple-A Richmond.
Harry James Bright (1929-2000) grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and was signed as a 16-year-old catching prospect by a New York Yankees scout, then spent a dozen years and fourteen minor-league clubs waiting for a call that nearly never came. He could handle every infield position, catch, and play the outfield, and he could hit: a .413 average for Clovis in the Class C West Texas-New Mexico League in 1950, a league-leading 101 RBI as a 22-year-old playing manager at Janesville in 1952, and a PCL-best 119 RBI for Salt Lake City in 1960. Pittsburgh finally brought him up in July 1958, at 28. Over all or parts of eight seasons with the Pirates, Washington Senators, Cincinnati Reds, Yankees, and Chicago Cubs he batted .255 with 214 hits, 32 home runs, and 126 RBI, his best year coming for the 1962 Senators. He is remembered most for one swing: pinch-hitting in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series, he struck out to end the game and hand Sandy Koufax a record fifteen strikeouts. Bright later managed in the Cubs, Royals, Athletics, Brewers, and Braves farm systems, scouted for the Montreal Expos, and died in Sacramento in 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 | 286 | 3 | 36 | 131 | 56 | 39 | 13 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 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: #433 New York Yankees
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- #36 Hal Reniff
- #50 Mickey Mantle
- #69 Clete Boyer
- #86 Al Downing
- #100 Elston Howard
- #118 John Blanchard
- #139 World Series Game #4 - Sealing Yanks' Doom
- #164 Bud Daley
- #190 Bobby Richardson
- #206 Steve Hamilton
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #259 card?
It is card #259 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Harry Bright of the New York Yankees.
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.