1965 Topps #21 Don Blasingame
About Don Blasingame
Number 21 puts Blasingame near the front of the 1965 set's first series, still at second base for Washington. The line behind it is 1964, more games than he played in any season with Cincinnati: 143 games, 506 at-bats, 135 hits, 17 doubles, 34 RBI and a .267 average, with eight steals. It was the last time he would hit better than .225 - he fell to .223 in 1965, and Kansas City bought his contract the following August.
Don Blasingame, a native of Corinth, Mississippi, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953 and entered pro ball as a shortstop before being taught second base. His speed with the Class AA Houston Buffaloes in 1954 - a .315 season with a career-best 34 stolen bases - got him tagged "Blazing-game," soon shortened to "The Blazer." He debuted on September 20, 1955, took the second-base job in 1956, and made his only All-Star team in 1958, pinch-hitting for Warren Spahn. Trades then carried him to San Francisco, Cincinnati and Washington, and the Senators sold him to Kansas City in August 1966, where he played his last big league game. At his retirement no big leaguer had grounded into fewer double plays per at-bat, a mark Don Buford later passed. Blasingame then spent fifteen years in Japan as a player, coach and manager for the Nankai Hawks, also coaching Hiroshima and managing the Hanshin Tigers, before joining the Philadelphia Phillies in player development. He entered the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and died of a heart attack in Fountain Hills, Arizona, in 2005.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 226 | 1 | 15 | 105 | 58 | 27 | 9 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 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: #267 Washington Senators
More Washington Senators cards:
- #38 Jim King
- #56 Ron Kline
- #86 Les Narum
- #99 Gil Hodges
- #129 Bennie Daniels
- #148 Willie Kirkland
- #152 Phil Ortega
- #181 Senators 1965 Rookie Stars
- #211 Steve Ridzik
- #224 Bob Chance
- #233 Don Zimmer
- #252 Pete Richert
- #284 Nick Willhite
- #304 Dave Stenhouse
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #21 card?
It is card #21 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Blasingame of the Washington Senators.
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.