1965 Topps #389 Don Larsen
About Don Larsen
Card #389, from the fifth 1965 series, is the only card in Topps' 1960s run that shows Larsen with Houston, and it caught the franchise right as the Colt .45s became the Astros. He had earned the spot: after the 1964 sale he went 4-8 with a 2.26 ERA in 30 games for Houston, ten of them starts, with two complete games and a shutout. He barely wore the new name, though, making one start for the 1965 Astros before Houston traded him to Baltimore for Bob Saverine and cash.
Don James Larsen was a 6-foot-4 right-hander from Michigan City, Indiana, who pitched in the majors between 1953 and 1967 for seven different clubs, finishing 81-91 with a 3.78 ERA in 412 games. He came up with the St. Louis Browns in 1953 and stayed with the franchise when it moved east and became the Baltimore Orioles, losing a league-leading 21 games in 1954. A 17-player trade on November 17, 1954, sent him to the New York Yankees, and there, on October 8, 1956, he threw the only perfect game in World Series history, retiring all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 and collecting the World Series MVP and Babe Ruth awards. He won titles with the 1956 and 1958 Yankees. After New York came the Kansas City Athletics, Chicago White Sox, San Francisco Giants, the Houston Colt .45s and Astros, Baltimore a second time, and finally the Chicago Cubs, with a shift from spot starter to full-time reliever along the way. Cooperstown never called, but the perfect game kept him on the writers' ballot for fifteen years, and San Diego's Breitbard Hall of Fame took him in 1964.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 387 | 11 | 73 | 168 | 55 | 40 | 18 | 22 | 0 |
| SGC | 29 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 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
More Houston Astros cards:
- #16 Houston 1965 Rookie Stars
- #31 Mike White
- #48 Claude Raymond
- #80 Turk Farrell
- #109 Walt Bond
- #164 Al Spangler
- #175 Bob Aspromonte
- #179 Hal Woodeshick
- #212 Ron Brand
- #240 Bob Bruce
- #257 Jim Wynn
- #274 Lum Harris
- #292 Larry Yellen
- #321 Rusty Staub
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #389 card?
It is card #389 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Larsen 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.