1965 Topps #214 Bob Purkey
About Bob Purkey
Card No. 214 is Purkey's only Topps card as a Cardinal, a third-series number. It caps a strange turn. He had rebuilt himself in 1964, going 11-9 with a 3.04 ERA over 25 starts, dropping to the bullpen for three weeks in July and then winning five in a row down the stretch of a pennant race the Reds lost on the season's final day, when the Cardinals slipped past them. That December Cincinnati sent him to St. Louis for pitcher Roger Craig and outfielder Charlie James, so the club that had just taken the pennant from him now signed his paychecks.
Bob Purkey was a right-handed Pittsburgh native who pitched thirteen big-league seasons, from 1954 through 1966, for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals. Signed by his hometown Pirates out of South Hills High School, he went 16-29 over four years for second-division Pittsburgh clubs; midway through that run, in 1955, general manager Branch Rickey sent him to the minors and taught him a knuckleball in ten pitches. The pitch made his name, though he insisted he was really a sinker and slider man who lived on control, walking just 2.2 batters per nine innings. A December 1957 trade to Cincinnati for Don Gross remade him: over seven Reds seasons he went 103-76, was picked for five All-Star squads across three summers, and anchored the 1961 pennant winners. His best year was 1962, when he finished 23-5 with a 2.81 ERA, led all major-league pitchers in winning percentage, and placed third in the balloting for the lone Cy Young Award. A sore arm in the spring of 1963 took the rest; he wound up 129-115 with 793 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA, and Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame in 1974.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 248 | 2 | 38 | 129 | 53 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #57 St. Louis Cardinals
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- #12 National League 1964 Strikeout Leaders
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- #100 Ken Boyer
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- #132 World Series Game #1 - Cards Take Opener
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- #139 World Series - The Cards Celebrate
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #214 card?
It is card #214 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Purkey of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.