1965 Topps #392 Bob Friend
About Bob Friend
Card #392, a fifth-series issue, reports a losing 1964: 13-18 with a 3.33 ERA. The workload was intact - 13 complete games in 35 starts and 240.1 innings - and 1965 would close an eleven-year run of 200-plus-inning seasons stretching back to 1955. It is the last Topps card to list Friend with Pittsburgh; the next year's issue would put him with the Yankees.
Robert Bartmess Friend was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and grew up in West Lafayette, an all-state pitcher and all-state football halfback in high school. The nickname came out of the football: he was a good tailback, and once he began piling up innings in the majors, "Warrior" stuck. He signed with Pittsburgh in 1950 and spent 15 of his 16 big-league seasons there, closing out with the Yankees and Mets in 1966. Friend led the National League with a 2.83 ERA in 1955, the first pitcher to win an ERA title for a last-place club, and tied Warren Spahn for the league lead with 22 wins in 1958, finishing third in the Cy Young voting. A four-time All-Star (1956, 1958 and both 1960 games), he won the 1956 All-Star Game. Durability was the trademark: 200-plus innings in eleven straight seasons, three years leading the league in games started, and not one day on the disabled list. He finished 197-230 with a 3.58 ERA and 1,734 strikeouts, the only pitcher to lose more than 200 games without winning 200, and he still holds the Pirates' career records for innings pitched and strikeouts. He was Allegheny County controller from 1967 to 1975 and was elected to the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2023.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 390 | 6 | 50 | 220 | 74 | 21 | 12 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 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: #209 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #2 National League 1964 Batting Leaders
- #12 National League 1964 Strikeout Leaders
- #25 Al McBean
- #54 Joe Gibbon
- #69 Bill Virdon
- #95 Bill Mazeroski
- #121 Gene Alley
- #143 Pirates 1965 Rookie Stars
- #160 Bob Clemente
- #195 Bob Veale
- #218 Dick Schofield
- #232 Steve Blass
- #246 Tom Butters
- #265 Jim Pagliaroni
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #392 card?
It is card #392 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Friend of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.