1965 Topps #301 Birdie Tebbetts
About this card
This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1965 Topps set - nineteen managers plus #457 Bob Kennedy, the Cubs' head coach in the College of Coaches era.
About Birdie Tebbetts
Card 301 comes from the 1965 set's fourth series, a plain mid-series number, and it pictures Tebbetts with the strongest Cleveland team he managed. The 1965 Indians won 87 and lost 75, his best record in four years with the club, and still finished only fifth in a ten-team American League that Minnesota ran away with at 102-60. Cleveland wound up 15 games back. It turned out to be the last full season Tebbetts ever completed as a major league manager.
Birdie Tebbetts caught for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians from 1936 to 1952 and was rated the best catcher in the American League in the late 1940s. He did not hit for power and he lacked speed, but he was an exceptional receiver, a smart handler of pitchers and a relentless needler of opposing hitters. Fourteen big league seasons left him with exactly 1,000 hits and a .270 average along with four All-Star selections, and three further seasons went to Army Air Corps service in World War II. He managed the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1954 until he resigned in August 1958, and the 91-63 third-place club he ran in 1956 made him Manager of the Year and landed him on the cover of Time the following July. An executive job with the Milwaukee Braves came next, then a return to the dugout with Milwaukee and Cleveland. He scouted for close to three decades after his managing days, working for the Mets, Yankees and Orioles, and in a 1969 fan poll he was voted the best catcher in Red Sox history.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 237 | 0 | 25 | 123 | 54 | 22 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Related cards
Team card: #481 Cleveland Indians
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- #76 Sam McDowell
- #92 Dick Howser
- #96 Sonny Siebert
- #105 Chico Salmon
- #128 Vic Davalillo
- #145 Luis Tiant
- #166 Indians 1965 Rookie Stars
- #185 Max Alvis
- #235 Chuck Hinton
- #262 Bud Daley
- #283 Fred Whitfield
- #317 Don McMahon
- #332 Ted Abernathy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #301 card?
It is card #301 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Birdie Tebbetts of the Cleveland Indians. This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1965 Topps set - nineteen managers plus #457 Bob Kennedy, the Cubs' head coach in the College of Coaches era.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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.