1964 Topps #173 Ryne Duren
About Ryne Duren
The 1964 card, #173 in the second series, is an ordinary number. The Phillies flannels came by cash: Los Angeles waived him that spring, found no takers, and sold him to Philadelphia on March 14, 1963. He stayed sober through that season and turned in his best work since 1959, going 6-2 with a 3.30 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 87 1/3 innings over 33 games, seven of them starts. The last complete-game win of his career came on July 4 against Pittsburgh in the second game of a doubleheader, the only run against him a Roberto Clemente home run.
Rinold George Duren pitched ten major league seasons between 1954 and 1965, a reliever whose thick glasses, poor eyesight and fastball reported at 100 miles an hour left hitters unwilling to dig in. The St. Louis Browns signed him in 1949, and he spent eight years in the minors fighting wildness that at times cost him a walk an inning, until Lefty O'Doul at Vancouver and Ralph Houk at Denver taught him how to pitch. He broke through with the 1958 New York Yankees, anchoring their bullpen with a 2.02 ERA and a share of the American League save lead, then cut his ERA to 1.88 in 1959. He was an All-Star in 1958 and 1959, and once more in 1961 after the Angels acquired him. In the 1958 World Series he saved Game Three and won Game Six, striking out 14 in 9 1/3 innings as New York beat Milwaukee. Alcoholism took the rest: stops with the Angels, Phillies, Reds and Senators ended in August 1965, leaving him 27-44 with a 3.83 ERA, 630 strikeouts and 57 saves. Sober from May 1968, he spent the rest of his life as an addiction counselor and told his story in the book I Can See Clearly Now.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 232 | 1 | 25 | 121 | 58 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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
- #191 Clay Dalrymple
- #208 Wes Covington
- #243 Phillies 1964 Rookie Stars
- #254 Don Hoak
- #265 Jim Bunning
- #319 Paul Brown
- #347 Bobby Wine
- #365 Cal McLish
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #173 card?
It is card #173 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ryne Duren of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.