1965 Topps #452 Gary Geiger
About Gary Geiger
Card #452 is a series-6 issue, and what makes it worth having is that it exists at all. Geiger's 1964 ran five games: bleeding ulcers and a stomach obstruction put him in a St. Louis hospital in February, he came back in May at 130 pounds, and on May 13 in Cleveland he told the Red Sox he was finished. He changed his mind over the winter and reported to Scottsdale in the spring saying he felt better than he had in years.
Gary Merle Geiger grew up in the farm country around Sand Ridge, Illinois, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher two days after his 1954 high school graduation, for the largest bonus a club could pay a player it did not put straight on its major-league roster. The Cardinals turned him into a left-handed-hitting outfielder, then left him unprotected, and Cleveland took him in the December 1957 Rule 5 draft; he debuted on Opening Day 1958. A year later he went to Boston in the trade that sent Jimmy Piersall to Cleveland, and he became the Red Sox center fielder, leading the club with 18 home runs in 1961. Injury kept interrupting him: a pitch that collapsed a lung in 1960, a wall collision in 1962, ulcer surgery that briefly ended his career in 1964, and a broken hand in 1965. He spent two part-time seasons with Atlanta and closed out in Houston, finishing twelve seasons at .246 with 77 home runs and 283 RBIs. He later managed in the Cardinals farm system and died in 1996 at 59.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 397 | 4 | 85 | 233 | 50 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 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
- #42 Earl Wilson
- #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
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #452 card?
It is card #452 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gary Geiger 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.