1969 Topps #488 Joe Sparma
About Joe Sparma
1969 Topps #488, from the fifth series, pictures Sparma in what proved his final season in Detroit. His control problems worsened to a 4.76 ERA over 23 games, though he carried a no-hitter against the Seattle Pilots into the ninth inning on May 31 before Don Mincher broke it up with a double. That December the Tigers traded him to the Montreal Expos.
Joe Sparma was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher who spent parts of seven big-league seasons, six of them with the Detroit Tigers, after signing with Detroit as an amateur free agent in 1963. A two-way star at Ohio State, he quarterbacked the Buckeyes under Woody Hayes before leaving school to pursue baseball, then debuted in the majors in May 1964. His fastball and overhand curve made him a rotation regular, and his best season came in 1967, when he went 16-9 with a 3.76 ERA and five shutouts. Command remained his lifelong obstacle, and it fueled a public feud with manager Mayo Smith in 1968. Sparma answered that tension with the biggest start of his career, a September 17, 1968 complete-game win over the New York Yankees that clinched Detroit's first pennant since 1945; he later pitched briefly in that year's World Series. Traded to the Montreal Expos after the 1969 season, he finished his playing days there in 1970. Sparma died in Columbus, Ohio in 1986 at age 44.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 263 | 1 | 32 | 132 | 69 | 23 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 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.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #488 card?
It is card #488 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Sparma of the Detroit Tigers.
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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 2026-10-12.