1965 Topps #271 Don Wert
About Don Wert
The 1965 card, #271 in the set's fourth series, arrived in the middle of the best season Wert ever had. He appeared in all 162 games, 161 of them at third base, and batted .261 with 159 hits, 12 home runs, 54 RBIs and a career-high 73 walks. Twelve errors gave him a .976 fielding percentage, best among American League third basemen and the only time in the whole decade that anyone other than Brooks Robinson led the league there. The Detroit chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association named him its first Tiger of the Year, and he finished tenth in American League MVP voting.
Don Wert was a right-handed third baseman who spent nine major league seasons, eight of them at Detroit's hot corner. Born in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, in 1938, he starred in three sports at Solanco High School, was signed by the Tigers out of Lancaster County in 1958 for $5,000, and climbed through Valdosta, Durham, Denver and Syracuse before debuting in Detroit in May 1963 at age 24. He took over as the Tigers' regular third baseman the next spring and held the job through 1970. Never a big bat, he built his reputation on defense, and his own managers and rival ones alike measured him against Brooks Robinson and Clete Boyer. He was named to the American League All-Star team in 1968 and won a World Series ring with Detroit that October. The Tigers traded him to Washington in October 1970 in the eight-player deal that also sent Denny McLain east; the Senators released him in June 1971 and his playing career ended at 32. Wert finished with 929 hits, 77 home runs, 366 RBIs and a .242 average across 1,110 games, 1,043 of them at third base. He returned to eastern Pennsylvania to farm and to coach baseball part-time at Franklin and Marshall College, and died there in 2024 at 86.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 255 | 1 | 33 | 127 | 55 | 21 | 10 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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: #173 Detroit Tigers
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #9 American League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #19 Gates Brown
- #37 Fred Gladding
- #53 Dick McAuliffe
- #83 George Thomas
- #130 Al Kaline
- #153 Norm Cash
- #191 Phil Regan
- #206 Willie Horton
- #236 Dennis McLain
- #259 Tigers 1965 Rookie Stars
- #288 Jack Hamilton
- #306 Bubba Phillips
- #335 Mickey Lolich
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #271 card?
It is card #271 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Wert of the Detroit Tigers.
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.