1965 Topps #240 Bob Bruce
About Bob Bruce
Card #240 catches Bruce at his peak, a third-series number whose back carries the best line of his career, from 1964: 15-9, a career-best 2.76 ERA that ranked tenth in the National League, nine complete games, four shutouts and 202.1 innings over 35 games. Five of the nine men ahead of him in ERA went on to the Hall of Fame. On April 19, against St. Louis, he struck out the side on nine pitches in the eighth inning, an immaculate inning thrown one day after Sandy Koufax managed the same, the only time the feat has come on back-to-back days. The last of his four shutouts, a 12-inning 1-0 win over Los Angeles on September 27, closed Colt Stadium for good.
Robert James Bruce was born May 16, 1933, a birth the record books place in New York City and his family history places in Detroit; either way he grew up in Highland Park, the small city ringed by Detroit. He did not take baseball seriously until his senior year at Highland Park High, then won a scholarship to Alma College, where a 19-strikeout game against the University of Detroit brought scouts around. The Tigers signed the 6-foot-3 right-hander for a $20,000 bonus, and after Army service interrupted his climb he reached the majors on September 14, 1959. Bruce worked as a swingman in 50 games for Detroit before Houston acquired him for veteran Sam Jones on December 1, 1961, and the move to the expansion Colt .45s made him a rotation regular. He is remembered in Houston as the man who threw the first pitch in Astrodome history. Traded to Atlanta on the last day of 1966 in the package that brought Eddie Mathews to Houston, Bruce closed a nine-year, 219-game career with the Braves, finishing 49-71 with a 3.85 ERA, 733 strikeouts and six shutouts over 1,122.1 innings. He later ran his own real estate brokerage near Dallas, and died March 14, 2017, in Plano, Texas.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 273 | 3 | 53 | 131 | 50 | 25 | 6 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #240 card?
It is card #240 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Bruce of the Houston Astros.
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.