1964 Topps #244 Tony La Russa
About Tony La Russa
Card #244 is La Russa's rookie card, a series-3 Kansas City Athletics issue from the middle of the 1964 set: it turns up at ordinary rates rather than late-series prices. It looks back at 1963, the season his bonus-baby contract required him to spend on the big-league roster, and there was little of it to print - 34 games, 44 at-bats, a .250 average, one run batted in, after an off-season softball game left him with a sore shoulder. He played mostly shortstop that summer, 14 games there against three at second base.
Tony La Russa signed with the Kansas City Athletics in June 1962 out of Jefferson High School in Tampa, on a deal that also paid for his schooling at the University of South Florida. As a bonus baby he had to be carried on the big-league roster, so he debuted on May 10, 1963 at 18; a shoulder hurt in an off-season pickup softball game held him to 34 games and bothered him for the rest of his playing days. Across six seasons with the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics, the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs between 1963 and 1973 he batted 176 times, hit .199 with no home runs and seven RBI, and spent most of the years in between in the minors while he finished his college degree. He retired as a player in 1977, added a law degree at Florida State, and found his real career in the dugout: 35 seasons managing the White Sox, Athletics and Cardinals, three World Series titles in 1989, 2006 and 2011, four Manager of the Year awards, and a career win total second only to Connie Mack's. The Veterans Committee elected him unanimously in 2013, and he was inducted at Cooperstown in 2014 as a manager.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,404 | 3 | 71 | 387 | 331 | 258 | 149 | 202 | 3 |
| SGC | 321 | 0 | 3 | 52 | 69 | 70 | 57 | 66 | 4 |
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
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #26 Gino Cimoli
- #42 Moe Drabowsky
- #75 Wayne Causey
- #108 John Wyatt
- #124 Orlando Pena
- #174 Doc Edwards
- #196 Jim Gentile
- #212 Pete Lovrich
- #229 Charley Lau
- #276 Jose Tartabull
- #302 Dan Pfister
- #320 Rocky Colavito
- #334 Lew Krausse
- #348 Ed Lopat
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #244 card?
It is card #244 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony La Russa of the Kansas City Athletics.
Is 1964 Topps #244 a rookie card?
Yes - #244 is the 1964 Topps rookie card of Tony La Russa.
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.