1964 Topps #451 Joe Amalfitano
About Joe Amalfitano
The Giants sold him to Chicago on March 29, 1964, and Amalfitano gave the Cubs his best power year: 100 games, 86 at second base, .241 with career highs of 19 doubles, six triples and four home runs. Card #451 falls in the sixth series, a step tougher to find than the early-series commons.
John Joseph Amalfitano, born January 23, 1934 in San Pedro, California, was a right-handed infielder who played ten major league seasons between 1954 and 1967. The New York Giants signed him as a bonus baby in February 1954, and the rule of that era pinned him to the big-league bench for two years; he was sitting in the bullpen at the Polo Grounds when Willie Mays made The Catch in the 1954 World Series. Four seasons in the minors followed, and he came back to the National League in 1960 with the San Francisco Giants, later playing for the Houston Colt .45s and Chicago Cubs. Mostly a second baseman, with long stretches at third and a few games at short, he batted .244 over 643 games with 418 hits, nine home runs and 123 RBI. His last game came June 27, 1967, and he moved straight into coaching: parts of three seasons managing the Cubs from 1979 to 1981 (66-116), sixteen years as the Los Angeles Dodgers' third base coach including the 1988 World Series title, and a long closing run teaching infielders in the Giants organization before retiring in January 2021.
Sources: Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · MLB.com
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 192 | 0 | 21 | 104 | 45 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 1 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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: #237 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #1 1963 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #29 Lou Brock
- #55 Ernie Banks
- #78 Merritt Ranew
- #96 Bob Buhl
- #111 Don Elston
- #131 Steve Boros
- #175 Billy Williams
- #192 Cubs 1964 Rookie Stars
- #220 Dick Ellsworth
- #252 Ken Aspromonte
- #269 Ellis Burton
- #286 Don Landrum
- #309 Paul Toth
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #451 card?
It is card #451 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Amalfitano of the Chicago Cubs.
Why is #451 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.