1973 Topps #428 Wayne Simpson
About Wayne Simpson
Cincinnati traded Simpson and Hal McRae to Kansas City for Roger Nelson and Richie Scheinblum that winter, a move Simpson had requested. The Royals sent him to Triple-A Omaha in late June, and he finished the year 3-4 with a 5.73 ERA in 16 games, ten of them starts. Card #428, from the fourth series, lists him with Kansas City.
Wayne Simpson was a big right-handed power pitcher from Los Angeles, listed at 6 feet 3 inches and 220 pounds, whom the Cincinnati Reds took eighth overall in the 1967 draft out of Centennial High School in Compton. Wildness slowed him in the minors, where he walked 298 batters in three seasons, until a winter in the Puerto Rican league settled his control. He pitched for the Reds from 1970 to 1972, the Kansas City Royals in 1973, the Philadelphia Phillies in 1975 and the California Angels in 1977, finishing 36-31 with a 4.37 ERA. He tore his rotator cuff on July 31, 1970, several years before the early examples of rotator cuff surgery, and the injury took away his velocity. Hank Aaron collected his 3,000th career hit off him. Simpson finished his career in Mexico, where thoracic outlet syndrome threatened his pitching arm. He died in December 2024 at age 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 156 | 0 | 35 | 92 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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: #347 Kansas City Royals
More Kansas City Royals cards:
- #22 Ted Abernathy
- #48 Paul Splittorff
- #78 Richie Scheinblum
- #99 Carl Taylor
- #118 John Mayberry
- #140 Lou Piniella
- #164 Monty Montgomery
- #188 Cookie Rojas
- #233 Ed Kirkpatrick
- #251 Roger Nelson
- #282 Steve Hovley
- #306 Tom Burgmeier
- #334 Freddie Patek
- #392 Dick Drago
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #428 card?
It is card #428 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Wayne Simpson of the Kansas City Royals.
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.