1965 Topps #288 Jack Hamilton
About Jack Hamilton
Card #288, a series-4 issue, is Hamilton's only Topps card as a Tiger, and it documents a season that barely happened: five games, 15 innings, an 0-1 record and an 8.40 ERA in 1964. Detroit used him even less the next summer, and on October 14, 1965 the Tigers sold his contract to the New York Mets, closing a two-year stay of nine major league games.
Jack Edwin Hamilton was a hard-throwing right-hander who worked parts of eight major league seasons, 1962-1969, for the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, California Angels, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, finishing 32-40 with a 4.53 ERA, 20 saves and 357 strikeouts over 611.2 innings. He walked 348, nearly as many as he struck out. Born in Burlington, Iowa, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals at a 1957 tryout camp and spent four wild years in their farm system before Philadelphia took him in the November 1960 minor league draft. He debuted on April 13, 1962, threw a one-hitter for the Mets in 1966, and hit a grand slam on May 20, 1967 for his only home run. He is remembered for one pitch: on August 18, 1967 at Fenway Park he struck Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro on the left cheekbone, fracturing it and badly damaging the retina; Conigliaro missed the rest of that season and all of 1968. He later ran restaurants in Iowa and Branson, Missouri, and died February 22, 2018, at 79.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 228 | 0 | 42 | 112 | 45 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 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
- #271 Don Wert
- #306 Bubba Phillips
- #335 Mickey Lolich
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #288 card?
It is card #288 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jack Hamilton 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.