1965 Topps #179 Hal Woodeshick
About Hal Woodeshick
Card No. 179 is a third series card. It shows him with the Astros, the renamed Houston club whose new domed park he opened by winning its first game, an exhibition against the Yankees. He had three wins, two saves and a 2.05 ERA at the end of May, and on June 15 Houston sent him and Chuck Taylor to St. Louis for Mike Cuellar and Ron Taylor. The Cardinals had asked for him because their relief corps was carrying a 4.36 ERA; he answered with 15 saves, the most on the club, and a 0.96 ERA over his 42 remaining appearances.
Harold Joseph Woodeshick, born August 24, 1932, in Askam, Pennsylvania, in the coal country outside Wilkes-Barre, signed with the Phillies at seventeen and needed a decade to stick. Two Army years as a military policeman and a long minor league apprenticeship slowed him; brief looks with Detroit in 1956 and Cleveland in 1958 led only to two seasons of swing work for the original Washington Senators. Expansion remade the left-hander's career. Drafted by the new Senators in December 1960, traded back to Detroit in June 1961 and sold to Houston that October, he became one of only three players to play two straight seasons for two different expansion teams in their inaugural campaigns. The Colt .45s turned him into their first true closer in 1963, a 1.97 ERA earning his only All-Star selection, and he led the National League with 23 saves in 1964. Traded to St. Louis in 1965, he finished on the 1967 World Series champion Cardinals and retired at 44-62 with 61 saves and a 3.56 ERA. He was nicknamed the Switchman for his knack of turning out the lights on opposing batters, and died in Houston in 2009 at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 357 | 2 | 82 | 193 | 51 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 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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- #164 Al Spangler
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #179 card?
It is card #179 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Woodeshick 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.