1965 Topps #472 Don Pavletich
The front of this card lists him as a pitcher. Pavletich was a catcher and first baseman who never pitched in the majors.
Uncorrected error: Pavletich listed as pitcher on front - he was a catcher
About Don Pavletich
The best year of Pavletich's career came as a backup: Johnny Edwards caught 116 games to his 68, yet Pavletich batted .319 with eight home runs and 32 RBIs, the top average on the Reds among anyone with more than 200 plate appearances. His signature game came on June 25 in Milwaukee, in front of the friends he grew up with, when he caught all eleven innings and won it with a two-run homer in the top of the 11th. Card #472 belongs to the sixth series. Collectors know it for a printing oddity: the front labels him a pitcher, and he never threw a big-league pitch.
Donald Stephen Pavletich was born in Milwaukee on July 13, 1938, and grew up in the suburb of West Allis. He was of Croatian descent, all four grandparents having come over from Croatia. He hit .405 across four years at Nathan Hale High School and starred in American Legion and semipro ball before the Reds signed him in August 1956 for a reported $35,000 bonus. The bonus rule kept him on the big-league roster, and he debuted at 18 on April 20, 1957, pinch-hitting at Milwaukee's County Stadium. Weeks later he enlisted in the Army, serving as a medic in Heilbronn, Germany, until February 1959. He rebuilt his career at Topeka and Indianapolis, was voted a Triple-A All-Star in 1961, and finally collected his first big-league hit on April 29, 1962, five years after his debut. He spent most of the 1960s in Cincinnati behind Johnny Edwards and then Johnny Bench, went to the White Sox after 1968 and to Boston after 1969, and closed out at .254 with 46 home runs and 193 RBIs in 536 games over twelve seasons. Released by the Brewers in the spring of 1972, he sold investment real estate and later worked as a Milwaukee loan officer. He died in 2020 at 81.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 279 | 1 | 45 | 148 | 57 | 13 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #472 card?
It is card #472 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Pavletich of the Cincinnati Reds.
Does 1965 Topps #472 have an error?
Pavletich listed as pitcher on front - he was a catcher. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #472 reads the same way.
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.