1964 Topps #252 Ken Aspromonte
About Ken Aspromonte
The 1964 card, #252, lands in the third series - just a regular card in the middle of the set. The Cubs uniform on it was already out of date. Aspromonte trained with Chicago in the spring of 1964, but the club placed him on waivers March 30 for the purpose of an unconditional release and let him go April 3. On April 23 he signed with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Central League and batted .282 in 101 games at Nagoya, the first of three seasons he plainly enjoyed there. Anyone who pulled this card in 1964 was looking at a ballplayer who had already moved his career an ocean away.
Ken Aspromonte, born September 22, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, was a right-handed second baseman who played parts of seven big-league seasons from 1957 to 1963 with the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Braves and Chicago Cubs. Signed by the Red Sox in 1950 out of Brooklyn's Lafayette High School, he spent six years in the minors plus two in the Army before debuting on September 2, 1957, having just won the Pacific Coast League batting title at .334 for the San Francisco Seals. Washington traded him to Cleveland on May 15, 1960 for outfielder Pete Whisenant, and the move made his career: he hit a career-high .290 with 10 home runs, 48 RBIs and 65 runs. Cleveland then left him unprotected in the December 1960 American League expansion draft, and he opened 1961 as the Los Angeles Angels' second baseman. His last big-league game came June 21, 1963 with the Cubs; released the following spring, he played three seasons in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons and Taiyo Whales, batting .273 over 295 games. He later managed the Cleveland Indians from 1972 through 1974, going 220-260. His younger brother Bob Aspromonte played 13 major-league seasons as a third baseman.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 218 | 3 | 15 | 98 | 69 | 20 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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
- #269 Ellis Burton
- #286 Don Landrum
- #309 Paul Toth
- #336 Andre Rodgers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #252 card?
It is card #252 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken Aspromonte of the Chicago Cubs.
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.