1965 Topps #295 Dick Radatz
About Dick Radatz
Card #295, a fourth-series number, carries the best year Radatz had: 16-9 in 1964 with a 2.29 ERA, a league-leading 29 saves and 181 strikeouts in 157 innings. He worked 79 games, second in the league only to John Wyatt's 81, and finished 67 of them, most in the majors. The strikeout total broke his own mark and still stands as the record for a relief pitcher. A second straight All-Star trip ended badly, Johnny Callison beating him with a three-run homer to end the game, but The Sporting News named him Fireman of the Year a second time and Boston's writers voted him the team's MVP.
Richard Raymond Radatz, a 6-foot-6 right-hander out of Detroit and Michigan State University, debuted with the Boston Red Sox on April 10, 1962, after a minor-league conversion from starter to reliever. He was the American League's most feared closer of the early 1960s: a two-time All-Star (1963, 1964) and two-time Sporting News Fireman of the Year (1962, 1964) who led the league in saves as a rookie and, in 1964, struck out a still-standing major-league record 181 batters in relief. The nickname "The Monster" is credited to Mickey Mantle, though the accounts of the night he hung it on Radatz do not agree. Boston traded him to Cleveland in June 1966, and he later pitched for the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers and Montreal Expos before finishing in 1969 with a 52-43 record, a 3.13 ERA, 122 saves and 745 strikeouts in 693-2/3 innings. The Red Sox put him in their team Hall of Fame in 1997. He died in 2005 at age 67 after a fall at his Easton, Massachusetts home.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 241 | 1 | 35 | 123 | 58 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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: #403 Boston Red Sox
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #5 American League 1964 RBI Leaders
- #29 Felix Mantilla
- #42 Earl Wilson
- #55 Tony Conigliaro
- #74 Red Sox 1965 Rookie Stars
- #88 Jack Lamabe
- #111 Lee Thomas
- #142 Bill Monbouquette
- #147 Dennis Bennett
- #162 Russ Nixon
- #178 Dalton Jones
- #199 Bob Heffner
- #222 Bob Tillman
- #251 Billy Herman
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #295 card?
It is card #295 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dick Radatz of the Boston Red Sox.
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.