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Checklists › 1967 Topps Baseball › #588 Johnny Klippstein

1967 Topps #588 Johnny Klippstein

Detroit Tigers · Pitcher · American League · Base set · Series 7 · Card #588 of 609
Position shown is where he played most in 1966, from that season's fielding records - not read off the card.
High numberDouble print

One of the double-printed cards in the 1967 high-number series.

1967 Topps #588 Johnny Klippstein, Detroit Tigers
1967 Topps #588 Johnny Klippstein card back
The back of #588 Johnny Klippstein.

About Johnny Klippstein

Klippstein's last card of the decade, #588, is a series-7 high number that Topps double-printed, so it turns up a little more often than its neighbors in the high series. It closes out a 1966 that got away from him: 26 games and 39 2/3 innings for Minnesota, with the veteran convinced manager Sam Mele had lost confidence in him. Released that October - out of work for the first time in 23 years - he made Detroit's roster in the spring, then was let go after five outings.

John Calvin Klippstein was a right-handed pitcher who spent 18 seasons in the majors, from his 1950 debut with the Chicago Cubs to a last outing for the Detroit Tigers on May 27, 1967. Born October 17, 1927 in Washington, D.C., he was spotted at 15 at a Cardinals tryout camp in Appleton, Wisconsin, and signed the following spring. He pitched for the Cubs (1950-1954), Cincinnati (1955-1958, 1962), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-1959), Cleveland (1960), Washington (1961), Philadelphia (1963-1964), Minnesota (1964-1966) and Detroit (1967), finishing 101-118 with a 4.24 ERA, 66 saves and 1,158 strikeouts in 1,967 2/3 innings, starting 161 of his 711 games and working out of the bullpen in his later years. Persistent wildness - 97 career wild pitches, with league-leading totals in 1952 and 1961 - earned him the nickname "The Wild Man of Borneo." On May 26, 1956 he held Milwaukee hitless for seven innings, walking seven; Hersh Freeman and Joe Black finished the ninth with the no-hitter still intact before the Braves broke through in the tenth and won it in the eleventh, and a 1991 rules change struck the game from the official no-hitter list. He reached the World Series with the 1959 Dodgers and again with the 1965 Twins. He died October 10, 2003, in Elgin, Illinois.

Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet

Graded population (PSA & SGC)

GraderTotal10987651-4Auth
PSA4381572051124210110
SGC2504763230

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. PSA registers a row for every one of the 624 states; SGC lists no separate row for the #149 white-streak state.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the 1967 Topps #588 card?

It is card #588 of the 609-card 1967 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Klippstein of the Detroit Tigers.

Is 1967 Topps #588 a scarce card?

It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #534-609 - the scarce end of the set, holding both Hall of Fame rookies (Carew #569, Seaver #581). Twenty-two of the 76 are accepted double prints, so scarcity varies card by card inside the run. It is also a double print card (26 cards: #1, #30, #100, the #531 checklist and 22 high numbers). Cards printed twice on the sheet, so more plentiful than their neighbours: #1 The Champs, #30 Al Kaline, #100 Frank Robinson, the #531 seventh-series checklist, and 22 of the 76 high numbers (#534, 537, 539, 542, 547, 548, 550, 551, 554, 556, 559, 562, 564, 566, 569, 582, 588, 589, 596, 599, 601, 608), Carew #569 included. A high number that is also a double print is easier than its series suggests.

How many cards are in the 1967 Topps Baseball set?

609 cards, tracked as 624 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 609 without a gap - no number was skipped and none was used twice - and 15 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.

Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-12.