1965 Topps #397 Jerry Buchek
About Jerry Buchek
Card 397 is in the 1965 Topps fifth series. It is a reserve's card from a deflating year in St. Louis: the defending champions slid to 80-81 and seventh place, and the last full season in the original Busch Stadium finished with nothing to celebrate. Buchek played 55 games and hit .247 with three home runs and 21 runs batted in, useful work in a summer when Julian Javier was limited to 77 games at second base, but not nearly enough to pry loose a middle infield that still belonged to Javier and Dick Groat.
Gerald Peter Buchek, born May 9, 1942 in St. Louis, was a right-handed-hitting infielder who signed with his hometown Cardinals out of McKinley High School for a bonus big enough to start him in the high minors at 18. He debuted on June 30, 1961 but did not hold a major league job until 1964, and across all or parts of seven seasons he was a versatile reserve who filled in at shortstop, second base and third. He was part of the Cardinals' 1964 World Series championship team, singling off Jim Bouton in his only Series at-bat. Traded to the New York Mets before the 1967 season, he finally got everyday work and set personal bests in games, hits, home runs and runs batted in. He finished with a .220 average, 259 hits, 22 home runs and 108 runs batted in over 421 games, spent one more year in Triple-A, and walked away at 27. He worked as a union meatcutter in St. Louis and later sold cars, and he died on January 2, 2019 in Springfield, Missouri, at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 279 | 4 | 66 | 148 | 40 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #57 St. Louis Cardinals
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- #10 National League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #12 National League 1964 Strikeout Leaders
- #28 Barney Schultz
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- #78 Dal Maxvill
- #100 Ken Boyer
- #116 Cards 1965 Rookie Stars
- #132 World Series Game #1 - Cards Take Opener
- #135 World Series Game #4 - Boyer's Grand-Slam
- #136 World Series Game #5 - 10th Inning Triumph
- #138 World Series Game #7 - Gibson Wins Finale
- #139 World Series - The Cards Celebrate
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #397 card?
It is card #397 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jerry Buchek of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.