1964 Topps #402 Tom Sturdivant
About Tom Sturdivant
His second run with Kansas City ended fast: three appearances, 3 2/3 innings, a 9.82 ERA, and a release in the first half of May. He signed with the Mets on May 10, which put him back under Casey Stengel, the manager who had first carried him on a Yankees staff, and he worked 16 games in relief without a win or a loss. His last big-league day was June 21, when he pitched both ends of a doubleheader against the Phillies; the Mets waived him two days later and let him go on June 27. He went home in July to start for the Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers, his last professional season. Card #402 comes from the fifth series and still shows him with the Athletics.
Tom Sturdivant was a right-handed pitcher who reached the New York Yankees in 1955, seven years after they signed him as an infielder. He played third base in Class B ball from 1948 through 1950, batting .255 and then .246, and spent 1951 and most of 1952 in the Army, where he decided pitching was his only way up. A curveball that was hard to face got him the nickname Snake, and he backed it with a knuckleball and a moving fastball. In 1956 he went 16-8, led the American League in strikeout-to-walk ratio, and beat Brooklyn with a complete game in Game 4 of the World Series; in 1957 he went 16-6 and tied for the league lead in winning percentage at .727. Arm trouble and a heel a teammate spiked ruined his 1958, though he was ruled eligible for the World Series at the last minute and took a ring without pitching in it. Traded to Kansas City in May 1959, he spent the rest of his career with the Athletics, Red Sox, Senators, Pirates, Tigers and Mets, leaning harder on a knuckleball the Associated Press called his best pitch by 1963. He finished 59-51, went into freight and truck leasing in Oklahoma City, and was elected to the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 193 | 1 | 46 | 93 | 35 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 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: #151 K. C. Athletics
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #402 card?
It is card #402 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tom Sturdivant of the Kansas City Athletics.
Why is #402 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.