1969 Topps #599 John Boozer
About John Boozer
His last Topps card is #599, a seventh-series high number reporting 1968, the only season he spent wholly in the Phillies bullpen: 38 relief outings, 2-2, five saves, a 3.67 ERA. It was also the year of the Shea Stadium ejection. Entering in the seventh on May 2, he drew a ball from umpire Ed Vargo for every trip his hand made to his mouth during warm-ups; Gene Mauch ordered him to keep doing it, and Vargo ran them both. Warren Giles overturned the reading the next day.
John Morgan Boozer, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound right-hander from Columbia, South Carolina, signed with the Philadelphia Phillies out of Wofford College in July 1958. Three seasons in the low minors led to a breakout 1961 at Double-A Chattanooga, where he went 19-9 with a 2.61 ERA, was picked for the Southern Association All-Star Game and was named the league's Rookie of the Year. He reached the majors on July 22, 1962, and pitched seven seasons for Philadelphia, 1962-1964 and 1966-1969, almost all of it out of the bullpen: 14-16 with a 4.09 ERA, 15 saves and 282 strikeouts in 171 games, 22 of them starts. He is one of only four players in major league history ejected from a game for violating the rule that bars a pitcher from going to his mouth on the mound. Teammates remembered him as one of the game's great flakes, a tobacco chewer who bit grasshoppers in half and ate moths in front of anyone he could turn queasy. He came home to become Lexington County, South Carolina's first recreation director, spending fifteen years building the county's playgrounds and ballfields, and died of Hodgkin's disease in January 1986 at age 47.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 401 | 6 | 133 | 198 | 38 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 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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Related cards
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #6 National League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #28 Mike Ryan
- #51 Woody Fryman
- #73 Johnny Briggs
- #108 Tony Taylor
- #133 Johnny Callison
- #174 Grant Jackson
- #188 Rick Wise
- #206 Phillies 1969 Rookie Stars
- #229 Don Lock
- #253 Jerry Johnson
- #276 Gary Wagner
- #297 Deron Johnson
- #329 Rick Joseph
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #599 card?
It is card #599 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing John Boozer of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Why is #599 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #589-664 - the scarce end of the set.
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.