1965 Topps #270 Milt Pappas
About Milt Pappas
Card 270 comes in series 4, and it catches Pappas in his last Baltimore summer and at his sharpest: 13-9 with a 2.60 ERA, the lowest full-season mark of his career. Al Lopez handed him the ball to start the All-Star Game at Metropolitan Stadium, where Willie Mays and Joe Torre both homered off him and he was charged with three runs in his only inning. Eight full seasons in, still 26 years old, he had 110 wins.
Milton Steven Pappas, born May 11, 1939, in Detroit to Greek immigrant parents, pitched 17 seasons in the majors from 1957 through 1973 as a control artist for the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs. Signed out of Detroit's Cooley High School for a $4,000 bonus, he got only a two-week taste of the minors before debuting at 18 in August 1957. He anchored Baltimore's young Kiddie Korps staff with Chuck Estrada, Steve Barber, Jack Fisher and Jerry Walker, won in double figures eleven straight seasons, and was an All-Star in 1962, when he pitched in both of that summer's two All-Star Games, and again in 1965, when he started the game. In December 1965 Baltimore sent him, Jack Baldschun and Dick Simpson to Cincinnati for Frank Robinson, remembered as one of the most lopsided trades ever made. He later pitched for the Braves and Cubs, no-hitting San Diego on September 2, 1972, and retired with 209 wins, 164 losses and a 3.40 ERA in 3,186 innings without ever winning 20 in a season. He is not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Baltimore elected him to the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1985. He died April 19, 2016, at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 263 | 2 | 35 | 145 | 55 | 15 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 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
Team card: #572 Baltimore Orioles
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #1 American League 1964 Batting Leaders
- #3 American League 1964 Home Run Leaders
- #5 American League 1964 RBI Leaders
- #9 American League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #15 Robin Roberts
- #33 Jackie Brandt
- #49 Orioles 1965 Rookie Stars
- #67 Harvey Haddix
- #94 Charlie Lau
- #113 Steve Barber
- #150 Brooks Robinson
- #169 Dave Vineyard
- #188 Sam Bowens
- #204 Russ Snyder
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #270 card?
It is card #270 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Milt Pappas of the Baltimore Orioles.
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.