#8 1964 N.L. ERA Leaders - Koufax & Drysdale

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1965 Topps set.

Building the Set
December 7, 2019 from King of Prussia, PA - Card #28

1965 Jay Publishing Phillies

We were up to 11 cards for our 1965 Topps set, and I honestly had it in mind that I wanted to purchase one fairly major "star" card during our remaining time at the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show inside the Valley Forge Casino.  The showroom floor was packed as we were now into the early afternoon and autograph guests were showing up every 15 minutes or so.  The PA announcer would call out ticket numbers in groups of 10 all while imploring collectors to back away from the entrance that led into the autograph signing area.

That was the backdrop when we came upon the table for MJW Collectibles out of Somerdale, NJ.  This dealer had a bunch of 1960s Topps binders spread out, and the sign on the 1965 Topps binder caught my eye - ALL CARDS $1.  So with Doug's help, I dug in.

I first determined I'd buy 10 cards, and then that went up to 15.  My only criteria was that the cards needed to be a good shape with four sharp corners.  Doug helped me pick the cards in best shape, especially when there were several of the same card to a page.  We picked our 15 commons and then the dealer asked if I wanted to see any "star" cards.  Knowing now that I wanted to spend in the range of semi-star cards and not star cards, I landed upon the World Series summary card first (#139) and then I paid $12 for this league leaders card.

The Card
The card features only the top two finishers for the lowest N.L. ERA as the Phillies' Chris Short did not have a contract with Topps at the time.  Short would have been coming off his fifth full season, having appeared in 211 games and named an All-Star in 1964.  But Short's omission makes this one of the most popular Dodgers cards from the 1960s, featuring two pitching icons from their franchise.

Sandy Koufax (#300) led the league in ERA for five consecutive seasons between 1962 and 1966, with his 1964 mark of 1.74 being bested by his 1.73 in 1966.  Don Drysdale (#260) never led the league in ERA but finished second twice - in 1964 and in 1957 to another teammate, Johnny Podres (#387).

At this point, we had added 28 cards to our set and the next cards wouldn't arrive until Christmas.  But between this show and Christmas, Doug celebrated his 13th birthday and received a binder to house our set.  I was happy to find BaseballCardBinders.com, and their wax pack inspired designs for set specific binders.  Doug and his cousins were excited too, and I think his brother Ben was just anxious for cake.  Pages have since been added and cards have been slotted, and now we continue the hunt.

Dodgers Team Set

Prior Card:  #7 A.L. ERA Leaders

Next Card:  #9 A.L. Pitching Leaders