1965 Topps #439 Moe Drabowsky
About Moe Drabowsky
Card #439 is a series-6 issue from the back half of the 1965 set, reporting a 1964 in which Kansas City leaned on Drabowsky harder than any club ever would: 53 appearances, a career high, 21 of them starts, and 119 strikeouts. The results wore down with the workload - 5-13 with a 5.29 ERA - and it was his last full big-league season in an Athletics uniform.
Myron Walter "Moe" Drabowsky, born July 21, 1935, in Ozanna, Poland, grew up in Connecticut. The Cubs signed him out of Trinity College in 1956 as a $75,000 bonus baby, and in 1957 he struck out 170 batters, tied for second in the National League. His elbow gave out in July 1958, and he became a 17-year journeyman - Cubs, Braves, Reds, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, Cardinals and White Sox - finishing 88-105 with a 3.71 ERA, 55 saves and 1,162 strikeouts. Baltimore remade him as a reliever, and in the 1966 World Series opener he allowed one hit over 6 2/3 innings and struck out 11 Dodgers, a single-game record for a relief pitcher, six in a row to match Hod Eller's 1919 mark. He won a second ring in 1970. Off the mound he was baseball's great prankster: snakes in teammates' lockers, bullpen phone pranks, a hotfoot for Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 230 | 3 | 35 | 117 | 51 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 1 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 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: #151 Kansas City Athletics
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #35 Ed Charles
- #51 Billy Bryan
- #71 John O'Donoghue
- #87 Nelson Mathews
- #117 Wes Stock
- #168 Dick Green
- #197 Diego Segui
- #219 Bob Meyer
- #239 Doc Edwards
- #266 Bert Campaneris
- #286 Athletics 1965 Rookie Stars
- #311 Orlando Pena
- #333 Tommie Reynolds
- #365 Jim Gentile
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #439 card?
It is card #439 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Moe Drabowsky of the Kansas City Athletics.
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.