1965 Topps #504 Jerry Grote
About Jerry Grote
Houston renamed itself the Astros and moved into the Astrodome for 1965, but Grote spent the entire season with the Triple-A Oklahoma City 89ers rather than the big club, batting .265 with eleven home runs before being traded to the New York Mets for pitcher Tom Parsons that October. Card number 504 in the sixth series pictures him with the Houston Astros.
Gerald Wayne Grote was a catcher from San Antonio, Texas who played sixteen major league seasons from 1963 to 1981 for the Houston Colt .45s/Astros, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals. After splitting time behind the plate in Houston, he was traded to the Mets in October 1965 and became their regular catcher from 1966 through 1977. Grote earned two All-Star selections, in 1968 and 1974, and built a reputation as one of the finest defensive catchers of his era, known for a strong throwing arm and a knack for handling young pitching staffs including Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. He caught every inning of the Mets' 1969 postseason run, helping the club upset the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, and returned to the World Series again in 1973 and with the Dodgers in 1977 and 1978. He finished his career with a .252 batting average over 1,421 games.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 277 | 5 | 57 | 142 | 43 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 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
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- #164 Al Spangler
- #175 Bob Aspromonte
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- #240 Bob Bruce
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- #321 Rusty Staub
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #504 card?
It is card #504 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jerry Grote 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.