1965 Topps #423 Jesse Gonder
About Jesse Gonder
1965 Topps #423, a fifth-series card, pictures Jesse Gonder as a New York Met. By 1965 the Mets had turned the catching job over to Chris Cannizzaro and cut Gonder back to pinch-hitting; he had only 105 at-bats when he was traded to the Milwaukee Braves on July 22. The deal was briefly held up while Commissioner Ford Frick looked into whether the Mets had deliberately sat Gonder against Milwaukee days earlier, but nothing was found. In Milwaukee he was the third catcher behind Joe Torre and Gene Oliver and managed eight hits in 53 at-bats.
Jesse Lemar Gonder (Jan 20, 1936 - Nov 14, 2004) was born in Monticello, Arkansas, and raised in West Oakland, California, where he caught for coach George Powles at McClymonds High School, the program that also produced Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Curt Flood. A left-handed hitter, he signed with Cincinnati in 1955 and worked his way through the minors - Mexico, the Havana Sugar Kings, Triple-A Richmond - before debuting with the New York Yankees in September 1960; his first big-league hit was a pinch home run. Over eight seasons with the Yankees, Reds, Mets, Braves and Pirates he batted .251 with 220 hits, 26 home runs and 94 RBIs in 876 at-bats. The bat was never the question: in 1962 he won the Pacific Coast League batting title and RBI crown and was named the league's Most Valuable Player. His catching drew constant criticism, which he disputed all his life. After he complained about the segregated spring-training lodging he and his Black teammates faced in Florida, Cincinnati became the first club to integrate player housing there - and Gonder was tagged a troublemaker, a label he believed cut his career short. He drove a Bay Area transit bus for more than 20 years and died in Oakland in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 332 | 9 | 60 | 175 | 57 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 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: #551 New York Mets
More New York Mets cards:
- #22 Charlie Smith
- #45 Roy McMillan
- #61 Chris Cannizzaro
- #73 Dennis Ribant
- #93 Jack Fisher
- #114 Jim Hickman
- #144 Ed Kranepool
- #167 Bill Wakefield
- #187 Casey Stengel
- #205 Warren Spahn
- #227 Bobby Klaus
- #258 Larry Bearnarth
- #277 Johnny Lewis
- #285 Ron Hunt
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #423 card?
It is card #423 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jesse Gonder of the New York Mets.
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.