1964 Topps #42 Moe Drabowsky
About Moe Drabowsky
Card #42 sits in series 1 of the 1964 set and carries the best work Drabowsky had done since his Cubs days: a 3.05 ERA over 26 games and 22 starts for Kansas City in 1963, with 109 strikeouts, his first 100-strikeout year since 1957. The 7-13 record beside it says far less about the season than the earned run average does. He had opened that year in the minors at Portland and was not recalled until June.
Myron Walter "Moe" Drabowsky, born July 21, 1935, in Ozanna, Poland, grew up in Connecticut. The Cubs signed him out of Trinity College in 1956 as a $75,000 bonus baby, and in 1957 he struck out 170 batters, tied for second in the National League. His elbow gave out in July 1958, and he became a 17-year journeyman - Cubs, Braves, Reds, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, Cardinals and White Sox - finishing 88-105 with a 3.71 ERA, 55 saves and 1,162 strikeouts. Baltimore remade him as a reliever, and in the 1966 World Series opener he allowed one hit over 6 2/3 innings and struck out 11 Dodgers, a single-game record for a relief pitcher, six in a row to match Hod Eller's 1919 mark. He won a second ring in 1970. Off the mound he was baseball's great prankster: snakes in teammates' lockers, bullpen phone pranks, a hotfoot for Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 235 | 2 | 17 | 115 | 63 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 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
Team card: #151 K. C. Athletics
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- #212 Pete Lovrich
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- #244 Tony La Russa
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #42 card?
It is card #42 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Moe Drabowsky 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.