1965 Topps #72 Tony Gonzalez
About Tony Gonzalez
Series-1 card #72 reports 1964, the season that ended in the Phillies' collapse, a 92-70 finish one game behind St. Louis. Gonzalez hit .278 with four home runs and 40 RBI in 131 games while an eye inflammation had him using medicated drops before every game. Bob Buhl had beaned him in the club's fourth game and he left on a stretcher; on August 11 a Dick Ellsworth pitch struck him again, square on the new ear flap.
Andres Antonio "Tony" Gonzalez was a Cuban-born outfielder who spent nine of his twelve big-league seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and was their primary center fielder for five of them. He built his strength hoisting 250-pound sacks of sugar during Cuba's cane season, signed with Cincinnati for ten dollars and a bus ticket to Havana, and reached the majors in 1960. The 5-foot-9 left-handed hitter was called "Little Dynamite" for the way the ball came off his bat. In 1962 he became the first everyday big-league center fielder to play an errorless season, and in 1967 he batted .339, second in the National League to Roberto Clemente, yet he was never an All-Star. Repeated beanings troubled his eyes and brought him the first big-league batting helmet with a pre-molded ear flap, in 1964. Dealt to Atlanta in June 1969, he hit .357 in that year's Championship Series with a home run off Tom Seaver. His major-league line closed at 1,485 hits and a .286 average; he played on in Mexico and Japan in 1972, then coached in the Phillies' and Angels' farm systems. The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, run in exile in Miami, inducted him in 1985. He died July 2, 2021, at 84.
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 | 272 | 0 | 44 | 142 | 50 | 17 | 11 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 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: #338 Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #4 National League 1964 Home Run Leaders
- #20 Jim Bunning
- #36 Bobby Wine
- #52 Ed Roebuck
- #107 Phillies 1965 Rookie Stars
- #123 Frank Thomas
- #163 John Briggs
- #184 John Boozer
- #203 Dallas Green
- #225 Bo Belinsky
- #248 Gus Triandos
- #280 Dick Stuart
- #296 Tony Taylor
- #310 Johnny Callison
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #72 card?
It is card #72 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony Gonzalez of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.