Steve Carlton (born 1944) is an all-time great left handed pitcher. He was nicknamed “Lefty”, and he has the second most career strikeouts and wins of any left handed pitcher. From 1965 to 1988 he played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1965-1971), the Philadelphia Phillies (1972-1986), the San Francisco Giants (1986), the Chicago White Sox (1986), the Cleveland Indians (1987), and the Minnesota Twins (1987-1988).
Carlton finished his career with a 329-244 win-loss record, a 3.22 ERA, and 4,136 strikeouts. Carlton was a ten time All-Star, a Triple Crown winner in 1972, and a four time NL Cy Young Award winner, as well as winning two World Series.
Born in Miami, Florida, Carlton was encouraged to play baseball at an early age. Carlton was a lackadaisical student. He loved baseball, and he planned on pursuing it. After a short stint in college, Carlton signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1963. He moved fast through the minor league system, and he had his first game with the Cardinals in 1965 at twenty years old. It only took him two more years to become a
By this time, the now 6 feet 4 inches, fully grown man quickly became a dominating pitcher. He appeared in the 1967 and 1968 World Series. The Cardinals won the 1967, but Detroit captured the 1968.
Carlton had a tough year in 1970. He disputed his contract offer of $31,000, in which he asked for $50,000, and he played quite awful that year. Though he rebounded with a 20-9 season the next year, management decided to get rid of him.
In 1972, Carlton was asking for $10,000 more, so the Cardinals traded him to the Phillies for pitcher Rick Wise. This would later be considered one of the worst trades in MLB history to the discredit of the Cardinals.
Fueled by the energy over the dispute and subsequent trade, Carlton won the Triple Crown and the Cy Young in 1972, making it one of the top pitching seasons in MLB history.
Regarding the situation, Carlton said, “Auggie Busch traded me to the last-place Phillies over a salary dispute. I was mentally committed to winning 25 games with the Cardinals and now I had to re-think my goals. I decided to stay with the 25-win goal and won 27 of the Phillies 59 victories. I consider that season my finest individual achievement.”
With some ups and downs, Carlton continued to have success for the remainder of his career. He won three more Cy Young Awards, and he helped the Phillies win the World Series in 1980.
In his later career, Carlton was best known for the chase to break the strikeout record between 1982-1984. Nolan Ryan was the first to break the record, but Carlton caught up right after. The two pitchers exchanged the lead 14 times.
Carlton finished with 4,136 strikeouts, second to Nolan Ryan who retired years after Carlton with 5,714. Carlton has since been passed by Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson as well.
In 1994 Carlton was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, where he was inducted on 95.82% of the vote on the first ballot. Additionally, his number 32 was retired by the Phillies, and he was named to their Wall of Fame.
His cards are straightforward: there are a few valuable Topps sets in his early career, and then in his later career, his cards are often barely worth the paper that they are printed on.
1965 Topps Steve Carlton Rookie Card
There are 598 cards in this set of standard size. The rookie card of Carlton is a key to the set, along with Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays.
Carlton’s rookie card is on a card titled “Cardinals Rookies,” and he shares the card with Fritz Ackley, who also was a pitcher.
This is a well preserved set. For reference, PSA alone has well over 200,000 cards from the set registered, and over 5,000 of those cards are Carlton rookie cards.
Gem Mint cards are not often sold. There is one registered sale for $12,756 in 2012 and another for $52,800 in 2018.
Mint condition cards have been sold for about $1,000-$2,000 since 2019.
1967 Topps Steve Carlton
This set has 609 cards of standard size. The key rookies to this set are Tom Seaver and Rod Carew. There are 1,389 copies of Carlton’s card registered with PSA. Though the number of graded cards moving around is lower, prices fall off steeply. Gem Mint copies are rare for this card, but Mint cards will typically sell for around $1,000.
Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan was drafted in 1968, and he remains a key to sets that Carlton is on. Furthermore, Carlton and Ryan make awesome duos on leaderboard cards. The rivalry between the two and the epic strikeouts leadership chase make for several valuable secondary cards. Many collectors want to track down a card with both Ryan and Carlton on it, even if it is a random card from the 1970s.
1971 Topps Steve Carlton
This set has 752 cards of standard size. There are 1300 cards registered with PSA. PSA Mint 9 copies have sold for at least $1,000 since 2015, but they have remained well under $2,000.
1972 Topps Steve Carlton
This set has 787 cards of standard size. PSA has over 1,000 cards registered, and one of those cards in Mint condition for about a hundred dollars.
This is not the most valuable Carlton card, but this is the year that he was foolishly traded from the Cardinals, he won the Triple Crown, and he won his first of four Cy Young Awards.
The set even has a “Steve Carlton Traded” card in the high numbers. It is worth about 50% more than the base card.
1973 Topps Steve Carlton
This set has 660 cards of standard size. There are plenty of cards from this set on the secondary market, and PSA alone has several hundred cards registered. Mint condition copies would cost a couple hundred, but for the top grade Gem Mint, it might cost a couple thousand.
This is one of those years that Ryan and Carlton are featured on a separate card together. The card is for “Strikeout Leaders” and it is worth several hundred.
Conclusion
Steve Carlton deserves his reputation as one of the best pitchers of all time. Along with Nolan Ryan and Gaylord Perry, he was a key part of the record chase in the 1980s. Carlton has some fantastic cardboard representations out there, and they are waiting for you to enjoy them.