1968 Topps #581 Garry Roggenburk
About Garry Roggenburk
An excellent spring got Roggenburk onto Boston's staff to start 1968, with manager Dick Williams telling reporters the lefty was much faster than he had been a year earlier. It did not hold. He pitched four games, allowing two runs in 8 1/3 innings, then went under the knife again on the left elbow, his second operation in four years. He was working out with the club by mid-July - running, throwing, taking treatments - but once he was fit to pitch the Red Sox sent him to Louisville, where four relief appearances closed out his year. Card #581 is a seventh-series high number, issued in a season he mostly spent getting healthy.
Garry Roggenburk was a 6-foot-6 left-handed pitcher born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 16, 1940. A two-sport star at St. Ignatius High School and the University of Dayton, he led his college team in scoring all three varsity seasons and earned All-American honors as a senior while carrying Dayton to the 1962 NIT title. The Warriors took him in the fourth round of the 1962 NBA draft, but he never seriously considered basketball and signed with the Minnesota Twins for a $12,000 bonus. He reached the majors in 1963 and pitched effectively as a rookie, then lost all of 1964 to a bone chip in his pitching elbow and the surgery that followed. He was back with the Twins for their 1965 pennant season, was sold to the Boston Red Sox in September 1966, and finished with the expansion Seattle Pilots, walking away from the game in July 1969 at 29. He later coached baseball at Cleveland State, ran the Red Sox' Winter Haven farm club as general manager, and worked as a real-estate appraiser in Ohio. He is a member of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 350 | 19 | 103 | 174 | 34 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 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. Slabs of the yellow team-letter #49 and #66 are 1968 Milton Bradley game cards and are not counted here.
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Related cards
More Boston Red Sox cards:
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- #4 American League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #6 American League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #10 American League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #12 American League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #26 Darrell Brandon
- #43 Gary Bell
- #61 Reggie Smith
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #581 card?
It is card #581 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Garry Roggenburk of the Boston Red Sox.
Is 1968 Topps #581 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #534-598, by the checklist-card division. The last two series together (#458-598) carry only a modest premium; no short-print list exists.
How many cards are in the 1968 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 606 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 without a gap and no printed number carries two different cards; eight cards - six of the seven checklists, #10 AL Pitching Leaders and #400 Mike McCormick - carry a catalogued print variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Beckett, 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.