1964 Topps #405 Ken McBride
About Ken McBride
Card #405 is a fifth-series card in the 1964 set, and it reached collectors just as everything turned. McBride won the Angels' opener that April, then carried a 2-0 lead against Detroit into a rain delay in his second start. He talked manager Bill Rigney out of pulling him, went back to the mound and, as he told it years later, heard something pop in his arm. The sinker and curve never came back. He lost 10 decisions in a row and finished 4-13 with a 5.26 ERA, although he still led the American League in hit batsmen for a second straight season, with 16.
Kenneth Faye McBride was born August 12, 1935, in Huntsville, Alabama, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he starred in baseball and basketball at West High School and led the basketball team to a state championship in 1952. The Boston Red Sox signed him for a $500 bonus after he graduated in 1953, and he spent six seasons in their farm system before the first-place Chicago White Sox bought his contract on August 1, 1959. Three days later he made his major league debut, starting at Baltimore. Left unprotected that winter, he was the Angels' seventh pick in the December 1960 expansion draft, and Los Angeles made him: he anchored the rotation for three years, went 36-32 from 1961 through 1963, and was named to the American League All-Star team in all three seasons, starting the 1963 game in his hometown of Cleveland. An arm injury in his second start of 1964 took away his sinker and curve, and he closed a seven-year career with a 40-50 record, a 3.79 ERA and 503 strikeouts. He later coached in the Milwaukee organization and was the Brewers' major league pitching coach in 1974 and 1975, then went home to Cleveland to raise his family and run a construction company.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 242 | 2 | 29 | 131 | 52 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #405 card?
It is card #405 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken McBride of the Los Angeles Angels.
Why is #405 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.