1961 Topps #127 Ron Kline
About Ron Kline
Card #127 in the second series is Kline's only St. Louis card in this nine-year Topps run, and the Cardinals let him go before the 1961 season opened. They had gotten him from Pittsburgh in a December 1959 trade for Tom Cheney and Gino Cimoli, then used him 34 times in 1960 - seventeen starts, every one of them before July 4, and bullpen work the rest of the way. He finished 4-9 with a 6.04 ERA for a club that went 86-68 and placed third. On April 9, 1961 St. Louis cut him after he refused a minor-league assignment to Portland, and sold him to the expansion Los Angeles Angels the next day.
Ron Kline was a right-handed pitcher who worked parts of seventeen major-league seasons between 1952 and 1970, missing 1953 and 1954 for Army service during the Korean War. Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1950 out of a tryout camp at Forbes Field, the Callery, Pennsylvania, native broke in with a last-place Pittsburgh club and spent the 1950s as a hard-luck starter, twice leading the National League in losses despite earned run averages in the mid-3.00s. Passed along through St. Louis, the expansion Los Angeles Angels and Detroit, he reinvented himself in Washington, where four straight bullpen seasons from 1963 through 1966 brought 83 saves and an earned run average under 3.00 every year. Over 736 games for nine clubs he went 114-144 with a 3.75 ERA, 989 strikeouts and 108 saves, the best of it coming after he stopped starting. He bought a tavern in Callery in 1969, ran it for years as Ronnie Kline's Bullpen, and later served as the borough's mayor.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 341 | 2 | 24 | 145 | 120 | 31 | 16 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Shop 1961 Topps cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
Team card: #347 St. Louis Cardinals Team
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #11 Curt Simmons
- #32 Ray Sadecki
- #52 George Crowe
- #64 Alex Grammas
- #75 Lindy Shows Larry
- #91 Walt Moryn
- #118 Chris Cannizzaro
- #139 Solly Hemus
- #148 Julian Javier
- #178 Bob Nieman
- #198 Carl Sawatski
- #211 Bob Gibson
- #232 Bill White
- #241 Al Cicotte
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #127 card?
It is card #127 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Kline of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.