1972 Topps #315 Paul Splittorff
About Paul Splittorff
He went 12-12 with a 3.12 ERA over 33 starts in 1972 and struck out a career-high 140. He began 9-4 and strung together 23 scoreless innings, then slumped; a Willie Horton line drive off his right shoulder and a slider experiment that hurt his curveball were blamed. He broke out of it in late August, throwing five complete games in his last six starts. Card #315 is from the third series.
Paul Splittorff was a left-handed starter who spent all 15 of his big-league seasons, 1970 to 1984, with the Kansas City Royals and finished with 166 wins, the most in franchise history. A 25th-round pick in the 1968 draft out of Morningside College, he started the first game in Royals organization history for Corning that summer. He relied on control and changing speeds rather than velocity. In 1973 he won 20 games, the first Royals pitcher to do so. He pitched in four American League Championship Series, three of them lost to the Yankees, and appeared once in the 1980 World Series against the Phillies. His career line was 166-143 with a 3.81 ERA over 2,554 2/3 innings. After retiring he worked as a Royals television color commentator for 24 years, and he was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame in 1987. He died in Blue Springs, Missouri, in 2011.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 249 | 14 | 66 | 124 | 30 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #617 Kansas City Royals
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #315 card?
It is card #315 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Paul Splittorff of the Kansas City Royals.
How many cards are in the 1972 Topps Baseball set?
787 cards, tracked as 794 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 787 with none skipped, in six print series (#1-132, #133-263, #264-394, #395-525, #526-656 and #657-787, the high numbers); 7 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - four Chicago Cubs cards with yellow or green under the "C" and "S" of the team name, the #251 and #478 checklists with smaller or larger print on the front, and the #604 checklist with its copyright line aligned right or left.
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.