1964 Topps #412 Ray Culp
About Ray Culp
Topps gave Culp a card of his own for the first time with #412, a fifth-series card that still has him with Philadelphia. The back carries a rookie workload rather than a rookie's cameo: 30 starts, ten complete games and 203 1/3 innings, with a league-leading 102 walks marking the rough edge of the year. That summer he had also worked a scoreless fifth inning for the National League in the All-Star Game at Cleveland.
Ray Culp, a right-handed pitcher born August 6, 1941, in Elgin, Texas, signed with the Philadelphia Phillies out of Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin for a $100,000 bonus in 1959, then spent four uneven minor-league seasons before sticking in the majors. He debuted on April 10, 1963, and was named The Sporting News' National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year that season, going 14-11 with a 2.97 ERA, 176 strikeouts, five shutouts and an All-Star selection. Elbow trouble knocked him back the following year, and after a bullpen-heavy 1966 he demanded a trade; Philadelphia sent him to the Chicago Cubs that December for Dick Ellsworth, and Chicago dealt him to the Boston Red Sox a year later. Armed with a palmball Roger Craig had shown him back in Philadelphia, he became the Red Sox ace, winning between 14 and 17 games in each of his first four seasons there and making a second All-Star team in 1969. Shoulder surgery and arm trouble ended his career in 1973 at 122-101 with a 3.58 ERA and 1,411 strikeouts over 11 seasons; he went home to Austin and built a real-estate business.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 196 | 1 | 17 | 106 | 43 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 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: #293 Philadelphia Phillies
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- #104 Art Mahaffey
- #135 Johnny Callison
- #157 Gene Mauch
- #173 Ryne Duren
- #191 Clay Dalrymple
- #208 Wes Covington
- #243 Phillies 1964 Rookie Stars
- #254 Don Hoak
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #412 card?
It is card #412 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ray Culp of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Why is #412 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.