1965 Topps #246 Tom Butters
About Tom Butters
In late February 1965, driving to spring training with his wife and two small children, Butters was rear-ended in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and came away with severe whiplash. The club ordered three weeks of rest in mid-March. He got into five games, all in relief, going 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA before the disabled list swallowed the rest of his year; his final appearance came May 20, and Pittsburgh released him in July. Card #246 is a third-series single with the Pirates, a plain middle number. His rookie-card billing belongs to two earlier Rookie Stars issues. It is the last of his three cards from the decade.
Thomas Arden Butters was born April 8, 1938, in Delaware, Ohio, and grew up rooting for Ohio State and the Cleveland Indians. He entered Ohio Wesleyan University in his hometown in 1956, having already signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a 17-year-old after a workout watched in person by former Pirates general manager Branch Rickey, a fellow Ohio Wesleyan man. A hard thrower whose control never caught up to his arm, Butters needed almost six full years in the minors before Pittsburgh called him up in September 1962. Over parts of four seasons he went 2-3 with a 3.10 ERA, 85 strikeouts and 56 walks in 95 2/3 innings across 43 games. Severe whiplash from a February 1965 car accident ended his pitching, and a 1966 comeback attempt failed when the pain would not let up. He coached Duke baseball from 1968 to 1970, then became the university's athletic director in 1977 and ran Duke athletics for two decades, hiring basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski in 1980. Butters entered the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. He died March 31, 2016, at his home in Durham.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 239 | 2 | 25 | 130 | 55 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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: #209 Pittsburgh Pirates
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- #143 Pirates 1965 Rookie Stars
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #246 card?
It is card #246 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tom Butters of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.