1970 Topps #243 Joe Sparma
About Joe Sparma
Sparma went 6-8 with a 4.76 ERA in 1969 before Detroit traded him to Montreal on December 3 for Jerry Robertson. Card #243, from the second series, shows him with the Expos. Manager Gene Mauch named him the 1970 opening day starter, but he went 0-4 with a 7.06 ERA in 9 games and pitched his last game on May 12.
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-sport athlete 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 a persistent 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 · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 139 | 2 | 19 | 95 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. 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 1970 Topps #243 card?
It is card #243 of the 720-card 1970 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Sparma of the Montreal Expos.
How many cards are in the 1970 Topps Baseball set?
720 cards, tracked as 726 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 720 with none skipped, issued in seven series - #1-132, #133-263, #264-372, #373-459, #460-546, #547-633 and the high numbers, #634-720; 6 cards, all of them checklists, carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-25.