1964 Topps #291 Phil Ortega
About Phil Ortega
1964 gave Ortega his first full major league season - 34 appearances, 25 starts, 157-1/3 innings, 107 strikeouts and a 4.00 ERA, with four complete games and three shutouts against a 7-9 record. The pick of them was a three-hitter over the contending Cincinnati Reds on August 23. Card #291 belongs to the 1964 Topps fourth print series, an ordinary mid-run number. It is his last Topps issue in Dodger blue, printed months before the December trade that shipped him to Washington.
Phil Ortega, born Filomeno Coronada Ortega on October 7, 1939 in Gilbert, Arizona, was a 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher who appeared in 204 major league games over all or parts of ten seasons from 1960 through 1969. He graduated from Mesa High School in 1959 and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers that year as an amateur free agent for a $75,000 bonus, going straight to Triple-A Spokane. After four seasons of shuttling between Los Angeles and the minors he claimed a rotation spot in 1964. That December the Dodgers packaged him with Frank Howard, Ken McMullen and Pete Richert and sent them to the Washington Senators for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy and $100,000, with Dick Nen completing the deal on December 15. In Washington he pitched for former Dodger teammate Gil Hodges and made 94 starts across three seasons, peaking in 1967. The Senators sold his contract to the California Angels in April 1969, and he made his final big-league appearance that May 4. He finished 46-62 with a 4.43 ERA, 549 strikeouts, 20 complete games and nine shutouts in 951-2/3 innings, then pitched in the minors through 1972.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 317 | 9 | 62 | 165 | 46 | 22 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 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
Team card: #531 L. A. Dodgers
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #1 1963 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #3 1963 National League Pitching Leaders
- #5 1963 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #7 1963 National League Batting Leaders
- #14 Dodgers 1964 Rookie Stars
- #30 Ron Perranoski
- #51 Pete Richert
- #68 Willie Davis
- #88 John Roseboro
- #101 Walt Alston
- #120 Don Drysdale
- #136 World Series Game #1 - Koufax Strikes Out 15
- #137 World Series Game #2 - Davis Sparks Rally
- #138 World Series Game #3 - L.A. Takes 3rd Straight
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #291 card?
It is card #291 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Ortega of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.