1961 Topps #18 Jim Grant
About Jim Grant
Card #18 places Grant in the first series of the 1961 set, and the back has a 1960 he would rather have skipped: 9-8 with a 4.40 ERA in 33 games, only 19 of them starts, and 78 walks against 75 strikeouts. He did fan 10 at Detroit on September 5, a career high to that point, though Cleveland lost the game 4-3. His season ended on September 16. Singing along with the National Anthem in the bullpen, Grant changed a line to note how little of the country was actually free to him; coach Ted Wilks answered with a racial slur, Grant dressed and walked out of the park, and manager Jimmy Dykes suspended him without pay for the rest of the year.
James Timothy Grant came out of the lumber town of Lacoochee, Florida, one of seven children, and lost his father when he was two. A football and baseball scholarship took him to Florida A&M, but he left in his sophomore year because the family needed the money, went to work as a carpenter's helper, and was signed for Cleveland in 1954 by bird-dog scout Fred Merkle. At the Indians' minor-league camp a man who took him for a Mississippian tagged him Mudcat, and the name stuck for life. Grant debuted on April 17, 1958 with a complete-game win over Kansas City and pitched 14 seasons for the Indians, Twins, Dodgers, Expos, Cardinals, Athletics and Pirates, finishing 145-119 with a 3.63 ERA, 53 saves and two All-Star selections. His 21-7 season for the 1965 Twins made him the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League; that October he took two of three World Series starts from the Dodgers and homered in Game Six before Minnesota lost Game Seven to Sandy Koufax. He later broadcast for Cleveland and Oakland, co-wrote The Black Aces on the Black pitchers who reached 20 wins, and entered the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2012. He died in 2021 at 85.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 406 | 2 | 50 | 203 | 92 | 29 | 16 | 12 | 2 |
| SGC | 28 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Related cards
Team card: #467 Cleveland Indians Team
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- #101 Bubba Phillips
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- #155 Johnny Temple
- #172 Don Dillard
- #191 Mike de la Hoz
- #222 Jimmie Dykes
- #255 Vic Power
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #18 card?
It is card #18 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Grant of the Cleveland Indians.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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 2026-10-05.