1965 Topps #587 Joe Sparma
About Joe Sparma
By his 1965 Topps card, #587, a high number from the seventh series inside the short-print zone, Sparma had become a full-time member of the Tigers rotation, winning 13 games with a 3.18 ERA over 30 appearances. He also earned a reputation as a Yankee killer that year, personally greeting Mickey Mantle on Mantle's own day at Yankee Stadium before striking him out.
Joe Sparma was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher who spent parts of seven big-league seasons, six of them with the Detroit Tigers, after signing with Detroit as an amateur free agent in 1963. A two-way star at Ohio State, he quarterbacked the Buckeyes under Woody Hayes before leaving school to pursue baseball, then debuted in the majors in May 1964. His fastball and overhand curve made him a rotation regular, and his best season came in 1967, when he went 16-9 with a 3.76 ERA and five shutouts. Command remained his lifelong obstacle, and it fueled a public feud with manager Mayo Smith in 1968. Sparma answered that tension with the biggest start of his career, a September 17, 1968 complete-game win over the New York Yankees that clinched Detroit's first pennant since 1945; he later pitched briefly in that year's World Series. Traded to the Montreal Expos after the 1969 season, he finished his playing days there in 1970. Sparma died in Columbus, Ohio in 1986 at age 44.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 320 | 2 | 38 | 180 | 64 | 21 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 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
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- #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
- #288 Jack Hamilton
- #306 Bubba Phillips
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #587 card?
It is card #587 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Sparma of the Detroit Tigers.
Is 1965 Topps #587 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last series, #507-598. Unlike most 1960s Topps sets the 1965 highs are not scarce as a run - the premium sits on the short-printed cards inside #523-598. It is also a short-print zone card. Forty-four of the 76 cards in #523-598 were short-printed; #507-522 was not. The zone is stated as a range because the catalogs disagree on exactly which cards, so no single card is marked.
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.