1964 Topps #404 Tony Martinez
About Tony Martinez
1964 Topps #404 shows Martinez with the Cleveland Indians in the set's fifth print series. His rookie card is the 1963 Rookie Stars issue. The season behind it was thin. Martinez spent most of 1964 in the high minors and got into only nine games for Cleveland, going 3-for-14 for a .214 average while splitting his infield time between shortstop and second base. Dick Howser, the man Cleveland had traded for to take his job in May 1963, was the Indians' regular shortstop in 1964, so there was nothing for Martinez to reclaim.
Gabriel Antonio Martinez Diaz, born March 18, 1940 in Perico, Matanzas Province, Cuba, signed with the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent in 1960. He started at Class C and climbed fast: by his third professional season he was an All-Star shortstop in Triple-A, and he took the 1962 International League Most Valuable Player award at age 22 with the pennant-winning Jacksonville Suns, Cleveland's farm club that went a league-best 94-60. That earned him the Indians' first-string shortstop job out of spring training in 1963, and he started the club's first 35 games before the bat gave out. Cleveland optioned him to Jacksonville on May 26 and traded with Kansas City for Dick Howser to replace him. The rest of his career was spent in the high minors apart from sporadic call-ups from 1964 through 1966. He finished at .171 with 30 hits, five doubles, no home runs and 10 runs batted in over 73 games, all for Cleveland. The Indians sold him to St. Louis on June 16, 1966, and the Cardinals sent him to the New York Mets with Jerry Buchek and Art Mahaffey the following April. He died in Miami on August 24, 1991, at 51.
Sources: Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 262 | 4 | 35 | 142 | 38 | 28 | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 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: #172 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #64 Ted Abernathy
- #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
- #317 Al Smith
- #338 Jack Kralick
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #404 card?
It is card #404 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony Martinez of the Cleveland Indians.
Why is #404 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.