1964 Topps #583 Tito Francona
About Tito Francona
Francona's 1964 card, #583, reports a hard 1963 with Cleveland: a .228 average, 10 home runs and 41 RBI over 142 games, his lowest batting average in any season as a regular. Its highlight came on July 31, when he hit the third of four straight Cleveland home runs in one inning off the Angels' Paul Foytack, only the second such inning in baseball history. The card sits in the seventh series, among the set's high numbers. Cleveland sold him to St. Louis in December 1964, making this his last Topps card as an Indian.
John Patsy Francona was nicknamed "Tito" - Italian for "little one" - by his father Carmen, a steel-mill tool grinder. Born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania and raised in New Brighton, he debuted on April 17, 1956 with the Baltimore Orioles and played 15 seasons through 1970 as an outfielder and first baseman for nine clubs: the Orioles, White Sox, Tigers, Indians, Cardinals, Phillies, Braves, Athletics and Brewers. His signature year came in 1959 with Cleveland, where he batted .363 in 399 at-bats, ten points better than American League batting champion Harvey Kuenn, but finished 34 at-bats short of qualifying for the title. He led the league with 36 doubles in 1960 and made his only All-Star team in 1961. Francona finished at .272 with 1,395 hits, 125 home runs and 656 RBI, went into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1978, and served as parks and recreation director in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. He died February 13, 2018, at 84. His son Terry managed Boston to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007 and later managed Cleveland.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · The Baseball Cube
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 259 | 0 | 25 | 146 | 51 | 24 | 4 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 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: #172 Cleveland Indians
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- #77 Jerry Walker
- #105 Woody Held
- #122 Don McMahon
- #133 Jim Grant
- #146 Indians 1964 Rookie Stars
- #184 Al Luplow
- #199 Joe Azcue
- #216 Mike de la Hoz
- #234 Gary Bell
- #253 Wally Post
- #301 Larry Brown
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #583 card?
It is card #583 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tito Francona of the Cleveland Indians.
Is 1964 Topps #583 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #523-587, distributed last. Scarcer than the rest of the set but only mildly so - the high premium runs roughly 55-60 percent, far milder than the 1952-62 highs.
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.