1977 Topps #491 Rookie Pitchers - Mike Dupree / Denny Martinez / Craig Mitchell / Bob Sykes
On this card: Mike Dupree, Denny Martinez, Craig Mitchell, Bob Sykes
About this card
Cards #472-479 and #487-494 are the sixteen four-player Rookie Prospects cards. A Rookie Prospects card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card - on #472, #473, #474, #475, #487, #489, #491 and #493 at least one of the four had already appeared on one, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
The story on this card
Dupree's 12 relief appearances for San Diego in 1976 covered 15 2/3 innings. His rookie card appeared in the 1977 Topps Rookie Prospects subset at #491. He represented the Padres alongside Denny Martinez of Baltimore, Craig Mitchell of Oakland and Bob Sykes of Detroit. Mike Dupree pitched and played outfield at Fresno City College before joining the Padres. He later played in Japan, spending the 1980 season as an outfielder with Hiroshima.
Martinez shares card #491 with Mike Dupree (printed with San Diego), Craig Mitchell (Oakland) and Bob Sykes (Detroit); it is his rookie card and one of the key rookie cards of the set. He appears with Baltimore after a 1976 call-up that went 1-2 with a 2.60 ERA over four games, beginning with a September 14 debut against the Tigers in which he threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in relief and got the win. Nicaraguan right-hander, the first from his country in the majors, who won 245 games from 1976 to 1998 with Baltimore, Montreal, Cleveland, Seattle and Atlanta. He threw a perfect game in 1991 and made four All-Star teams.
Card #491 puts Mitchell, printed with Oakland, alongside Mike Dupree (Padres), Denny Martinez (Orioles) and Bob Sykes (Tigers) in the Rookie Prospects subset; Dupree, Martinez and Sykes each have their rookie cards here, and the card ranks among the set's key rookie cards. In 1976 Mitchell made one relief appearance for the A's, pitching 3 1/3 innings with no strikeouts and a 2.70 ERA. Craig Mitchell, a right-hander from Santa Rosa, California, pitched in five games for the Oakland Athletics between 1975 and 1977, going 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA over 12 2/3 innings after being Oakland's 1973 secondary-phase first-round pick.
Sykes debuted on April 9, 1977, and pitched in 32 games for Detroit that year, 20 as a starter. He went 5-7 with a 4.41 ERA over 132 2/3 innings. His rookie card was #491, a four-player Rookie Prospects card shared with Mike Dupree of the Padres, Denny Martinez of the Orioles and Craig Mitchell of the Athletics. Left-hander Bob Sykes pitched for the Tigers in 1977 and 1978 and for the Cardinals from 1979 to 1981, drafted out of St. Rose High School in the 19th round in 1974. He started 61 of his 116 big league games.
Sources: Wikipedia (Mike Dupree) · Wikipedia (Craig Mitchell) · Wikipedia (Bob Sykes) · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac (Mike Dupree) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 675 | 41 | 213 | 298 | 55 | 32 | 19 | 17 | 0 |
| SGC | 53 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 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 cards: #134 San Diego Padres Team, #546 Baltimore Orioles Team, #74 Oakland Athletics Team, #621 Detroit Tigers Team
More San Diego Padres cards:
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #3 1976 RBI Leaders
- #5 1976 Victory Leaders
- #56 Rudy May
- #77 Dyar Miller
- #106 Mike Flanagan
- #135 Mark Belanger
More Oakland Athletics cards:
- #4 1976 Stolen Base Leaders
- #12 Larry Haney
- #31 Jim Todd
- #53 Paul Mitchell
- #61 Manny Sanguillen
- #101 Dick Bosman
More Detroit Tigers cards:
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1977 Topps #491 card?
It is card #491 of the 660-card 1977 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mike Dupree, Denny Martinez, Craig Mitchell and Bob Sykes. Cards #472-479 and #487-494 are the sixteen four-player Rookie Prospects cards. A Rookie Prospects card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card - on #472, #473, #474, #475, #487, #489, #491 and #493 at least one of the four had already appeared on one, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
Is 1977 Topps #491 a rookie card?
Yes - #491 is the rookie card of Mike Dupree, Denny Martinez and Bob Sykes. Craig Mitchell had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
Is it Denny or Dennis Martinez on #491?
The card prints Denny Martinez; he is better known as Dennis Martinez, the form most catalogs use.
How many cards are in the 1977 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, numbered 1 through 660 with none skipped and distributed as a single series. No card carries a catalogued print variation, so the base set and the master set are the same 660 cards.
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.