1965 Topps #42 Earl Wilson
About Earl Wilson
Card #42 sits early in the 1965 Topps first series and covers a 1964 season that pulled two ways at once. Wilson struck out 166 men in 202.1 innings, comfortably the most he had managed to that point in his career, but he surrendered 213 hits and finished 11-12 with a 4.49 ERA over 33 games and 31 starts. What the back of the card could not show was the bat. He homered five times that summer, three of them at Fenway Park, and slugged .466 for the year, the start of a real reputation as a hitter who happened to pitch.
Earl Wilson was a right-handed pitcher out of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, born October 2, 1934. The Boston Red Sox signed him in 1953, the season his arm moved him out from behind the plate and onto the mound, and on July 28, 1959 he became the first Black pitcher to appear for the franchise. On June 26, 1962 he no-hit the Los Angeles Angels 2-0 at Fenway Park and homered in the same game, the first African American to throw a no-hitter in the American League. Boston traded him to Detroit in June 1966; he answered with a 13-6 finish and then, in 1967, a career-best 22 wins that tied Jim Lonborg for the American League lead. He started Game 3 of the 1968 World Series for the champion Tigers and closed out 1970 with the San Diego Padres, finishing 121-109 with a 3.69 ERA and 1,452 strikeouts. He also hit 35 home runs, a total only a handful of pitchers have ever bettered. He settled in Detroit as a businessman and later led the Baseball Assistance Team, which aids former players in need, before a heart attack took him in April 2005 at 70.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 294 | 4 | 35 | 154 | 66 | 21 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 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
- #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
- #272 Chuck Schilling
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #42 card?
It is card #42 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Earl Wilson 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.