1964 Topps #334 Lew Krausse
About Lew Krausse
Card #334 arrives in the 1964 Topps fourth series with a Triple-A line behind it. Krausse spent 1963 at Portland of the Pacific Coast League, going 13-12 with a 4.22 ERA over 177 innings and leading the Beavers in wins once a rough start gave way to a much sharper second half. Command was the whole point: the wildness that produced 46 walks in 55.2 innings as an 18-year-old was why Kansas City had buried him, and a November 1962 examination at the Mayo Clinic had ruled that his sore elbow needed surgery first. He opened 1964 on the Athletics roster, then lasted a third of an inning against Washington on April 26 and was optioned out the next day.
Lewis Bernard Krausse Jr. (April 25, 1943 - February 16, 2021) was credited with 18 no-hitters in amateur ball before he left Chester High School in Pennsylvania. Kansas City signed him within hours of his June 6, 1961 graduation for $125,000, a figure Athletics general manager Frank Lane called baseball's largest bonus ever; his father, Lew Krausse Sr., a former Philadelphia Athletics pitcher, scouted for the club. Ten days after graduation, at 18, Krausse threw a three-hit, 4-0 shutout over the expansion Los Angeles Angels, becoming the youngest pitcher in either league to complete a nine-inning shutout. Control problems and elbow surgery then kept him in the minors through 1962 and 1963. He broke through in 1966 at 14-9 with a 2.99 ERA; in 1967 owner Charlie Finley fined and suspended him over a team flight, turmoil that cost manager Alvin Dark his job and Ken Harrelson his release. Krausse pitched twelve major league seasons for five clubs, finishing 68-91 with a 4.00 ERA, then built a Kansas City metals business. He entered the Delaware County, Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 239 | 4 | 39 | 125 | 46 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 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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Related cards
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #334 card?
It is card #334 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Lew Krausse of the Kansas City Athletics.
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.