1973 Topps #400 Gaylord Perry
About Gaylord Perry
By 1973 Perry was widely suspected of throwing a spitball. After losing a game to him, Detroit manager Billy Martin told reporters he had instructed his pitchers to throw one, and American League president Joe Cronin suspended Martin for three games. Perry went 19-19 for Cleveland with a 3.38 ERA over 344 innings. He completed 29 of 41 starts. Topps gave him three cards: #66, the League Leaders wins card shared with Steve Carlton and Wilbur Wood; #346 in the Boyhood Photos subset; and #400, his fourth-series single.
Gaylord Perry became the first pitcher to win Cy Young Awards in both leagues: with Cleveland in 1972, when he went 24-16 with a 1.92 ERA, and with San Diego in 1978, when he finished 21-6. The right-hander pitched 22 major-league seasons for eight clubs, won 20 games five times, struck out 200 batters eight times and made five All-Star teams. He finished with 314 victories, a 3.11 ERA and 3,534 strikeouts. Perry signed with San Francisco in 1958. Teammate Bob Shaw taught him the spitball in 1964, and Perry described his use of it in the 1974 book Me and the Spitter while claiming he had stopped. His cap-touching and other gestures remained part of his pitching routine; his first ejection for doctoring a ball came in 1982. That year Seattle knew him as the Ancient Mariner, and he earned his 300th victory with a complete-game, 7-3 win over the Yankees on May 6. He and his older brother Jim both won Cy Young Awards and more than 200 games. Gaylord was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 on his third ballot.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 548 | 1 | 69 | 234 | 103 | 62 | 46 | 32 | 1 |
| SGC | 83 | 1 | 5 | 29 | 25 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 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
More Gaylord Perry in this set: #66 League Leaders, #346 Boyhood Photos
Team card: #629 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #11 Chris Chambliss
- #31 Buddy Bell
- #53 Steve Dunning
- #66 1972 Victory Leaders
- #86 Tom McCraw
- #134 Milt Wilcox
- #157 Denny Riddleberger
- #181 Jack Brohamer
- #226 Ray Fosse
- #247 Del Unser
- #272 Ed Farmer
- #297 Walt Williams
- #327 John Lowenstein
- #339 Dick Tidrow
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #400 card?
It is card #400 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gaylord Perry of the Cleveland Indians.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
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.