1965 Topps #87 Nelson Mathews
About Nelson Mathews
Card 87 comes out of the first series of a 598-card set, so it is a low number. It shows Mathews with Kansas City again and turned out to be the last of his three Topps cards from the 1960s. The center field job did not hold in 1965: he got into 67 games with 47 outfield starts, batted .212, and played his last major league game on July 18, 1965, with the Athletics sending him to Triple-A Vancouver that month.
Nelson Elmer Mathews was born July 21, 1941 in Columbia, Illinois, graduated from his hometown high school, and signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1959. A right-handed hitter and thrower who stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 195 pounds, he reached the majors at 19, debuting on September 9, 1960 at Forbes Field: pinch-hitting for pitcher Mel Wright in the ninth, he singled off Vinegar Bend Mizell, took third on a Richie Ashburn double and scored on a Don Zimmer single. He spent most of 1961 and 1962 in the minors, batting .368 and making the Class B Northwest League All-Star team in 1962. He then spent the full 1963 and 1964 seasons in the majors, moving from the Cubs to the Kansas City Athletics between them. His playing time shrank in 1965, and he finished out his career in the minors through 1967. In 306 major league games he collected 218 hits, including 39 doubles, 14 triples and 22 home runs, batting .223 with 98 runs batted in. His son, T.J. Mathews, pitched eight seasons in the majors as a reliever from 1995 to 2002.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 387 | 3 | 72 | 199 | 80 | 18 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 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: #151 Kansas City Athletics
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #35 Ed Charles
- #51 Billy Bryan
- #71 John O'Donoghue
- #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
- #376 Jim Landis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #87 card?
It is card #87 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Nelson Mathews 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.