1976 Topps #98 Dennis Eckersley RC: A Hall of Fame Closer's Card From His Starting Days
Dennis Eckersley's rookie card shows a young starting pitcher with long hair and an Indians cap, and nothing on it hints at the closer he became. He would finish with 197 wins, 390 saves and 100 complete games, and the Hall of Fame calls him the only big-league pitcher with 100 saves and 100 complete games. PSA has graded 5,858 copies of 1976 Topps #98. Nine are Gem Mint 10s.
PSA's record for the card carries both the rookie and Hall of Fame designations. Eckersley is caught mid-windup, glove and ball raised behind his head, in a navy cap and a white Indians jersey with navy and red trim, against a clear blue sky. A pink frame runs around the photo. His name sits in an orange strip at the bottom, "INDIANS" in a pink bar beneath it, and a small pitcher figure fills the lower-left corner beside the word "PITCHER." The copy pictured is a PSA Gem Mint 10, cert 02016858, which PSA records under the Dmitri Young Collection pedigree.
The Season Behind the Card
Eckersley was born in Oakland on Oct. 3, 1954, and debuted for Cleveland on April 12, 1975, at 20. His rookie season, the one this card follows, went 13-7 with a 2.60 ERA in 34 games, 24 of them starts, with 152 strikeouts in 186 2/3 innings, six complete games and two shutouts.
"It was obvious to me Eckersley would be an outstanding pitcher," said Bob Quinn, Cleveland's minor league director during Eckersley's years with the team. "He had outstanding speed and intimidated you with a sidearm slider."
On May 30, 1977, in his 65th major league start, Eckersley no-hit the California Angels 1-0 at Cleveland Stadium, striking out 12. He was 22. Counting the start before and the start after, he put together 21 1/3 straight no-hit innings, the Hall's Craig Muder writes.
Starter, Then Closer
Cleveland traded him to Boston before the 1978 season, and he went 20-8 for the Red Sox that year. For the first half of a 24-year career he was a starter with the Indians, Red Sox and Cubs, reaching double figures in wins 10 times.
The second half began with a trade to Oakland before the 1987 season. Under manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan, Eckersley became the A's closer. From 1988 to 1992 he averaged 44 saves a season, and the A's won four American League West titles and the 1989 World Series.
His 1992 season is the one the Hall singles out: a 7-1 record, a 1.91 ERA, a league-leading 51 saves, and 93 strikeouts against 11 walks, six of them intentional, in 80 innings. He won the AL Cy Young Award and the AL Most Valuable Player Award that year.
The common thread was control. "He could hit a gnat in the butt with a pitch if he wanted to," Rich "Goose" Gossage once said. Eckersley finished 197-171 with a 3.50 ERA, 2,401 strikeouts and 390 saves in 1,071 games, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004.
PSA Population Report
| PSA Grade | Population |
|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 9 |
| PSA 9 | 191 |
| PSA 8 | 1,320 |
| Total Graded (All Grades) | 5,858 |
* Population data as of October 23, 2026. PSA population counts are dynamic and increase as more cards are submitted for grading.
A Curve That Peaks at 7
Most graded copies of this card sit in the middle of the scale. PSA 7 is the most common grade, and the drop from 8 to 9 is steep:
- PSA 10: 9
- PSA 9: 191
- PSA 8: 1,320
- PSA 7: 1,565
- PSA 6: 1,247
- PSA 5: 759
- PSA 4: 523
- PSA 3: 174
- PSA 2: 54
- PSA 1: 10
Six more are encapsulated Authentic, which completes the 5,858.
For every PSA 9 there are almost seven PSA 8s. About a quarter of the graded copies reach 8 or better.
The qualified grades stand out. PSA has issued 395 of them on this card, more than twice as many as there are PSA 9s, and 204 are qualified 8s. A qualified grade is PSA's grade for a card with one specific flaw, noted on the label beside the number. Add those to the 110 half grades and PSA has slabbed 6,363 copies in all.
Nine of them are 10s, about one in every 650 straight-graded copies. The pictured slab is one of them.
Verdict: Eckersley's rookie card shows a Cleveland starter fresh off a 13-win, 2.60 ERA debut season. He went on to throw a no-hitter, win 20 games for Boston, then become a Cy Young and MVP closer in Oakland and reach Cooperstown. PSA has graded 5,858 copies of his card, the curve peaks at PSA 7, and only nine are Gem Mint 10s.
