1964 Topps #33 Reds Rookie Stars - Sammy Ellis / Mel Queen
On this card: Sammy Ellis, Mel Queen
About this card
This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
The story on this card
Topps kept Ellis in the Rookie Stars subset a second straight year, putting him on series-one card #33 with Mel Queen. Queen was a Cincinnati outfielder at the time and would not throw a major league pitch until 1966, when the Reds turned him into a pitcher; his best year came in 1967, a 14-8 season with a 2.76 ERA. Ellis arrived on this card with eight big league games to his name and none at all in 1963, a year he spent entirely at Triple-A San Diego, where his 192 strikeouts led the Pacific Coast League. Sammy Ellis was the Cincinnati righthander who won 22 games and made the National League All-Star squad in 1965 before a sore arm ended his prime; he later spent twelve seasons as a big league pitching coach.
Queen made the Reds out of spring training in 1964 and homered off Bob Gibson in his rookie year, a season that earned him a spot in this multi-player Rookie Stars grouping alongside fellow Cincinnati farmhand Sammy Ellis. He appeared in 48 games that year, split between the outfield and pinch-hitting duty, batting .200 with 2 home runs and 12 RBI. He made his major league debut on Opening Day, April 13, 1964, as a pinch hitter against Houston's Ken Johnson. Cincinnati outfielder-turned-pitcher who won 14 games in 1967, later a longtime Toronto pitching coach through three straight Cy Young seasons and Roy Halladay's early-career turnaround.
Sources: Wikipedia (Mel Queen (pitcher/outfielder)) · Wikipedia (Sammy Ellis) · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac (Sammy Ellis) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 216 | 0 | 16 | 90 | 55 | 32 | 5 | 14 | 4 |
| 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
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- #125 Pete Rose
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #33 card?
It is card #33 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sammy Ellis and Mel Queen. This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
Is 1964 Topps #33 a rookie card?
Yes - #33 is the rookie card of Mel Queen. Sammy Ellis had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
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.