1962 Topps #290 Jim Gentile
About Jim Gentile
Gentile turns up twice in 1962 Topps. Card #53 is a first-series League Leaders panel for 1961 American League home runs, Roger Maris and his 61 over Mickey Mantle's 54 and the 46 apiece of Harmon Killebrew and Gentile. Card #290, a fourth-series Orioles card, stands in for all of that 1961 season: .302, 96 walks, 141 RBI and five grand slams, two of them in the same game at Minnesota on May 9. He placed third in the MVP vote, and a later scoring correction tied him with Maris for the league RBI lead.
James Edward Gentile, a left-handed-hitting first baseman born June 3, 1934 in San Francisco, played nine major league seasons between 1957 and 1966 for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Athletics, Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians. Brooklyn signed him in 1952 out of Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, turned the high school pitcher into a first baseman, then left him eight years in the minors behind All-Star Gil Hodges. Roy Campanella had already named him Diamond Jim. The Dodgers finally dealt him to Baltimore on October 19, 1959, and at 26 he took the job for keeps: both All-Star teams in 1960, 1961 and 1962, and a 1961 line of .302 with 46 home runs and 141 RBI, five of those homers grand slams, an American League record that held until 1987. He finished third in that MVP vote behind Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Gentile retired at .260 with 179 home runs and 549 RBI, and the Orioles elected him to their club Hall of Fame in 1989, a team honor rather than Cooperstown.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 289 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 122 | 85 | 26 | 13 | 1 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Related cards
More Jim Gentile in this set: #53 League Leaders
Team card: #476 Baltimore Orioles Team
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #6 Marv Breeding
- #34 Johnny Temple
- #45 Brooks Robinson
- #64 Russ Snyder
- #75 Milt Pappas
- #99 John Powell
- #112 Hank Foiles
- #121 Billy Hitchcock
- #134 Billy Hoeft
- #165 Jackie Brandt
- #189 Dick Hall
- #203 Jack Fisher
- #221 Bill Short
- #245 Ron Hansen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #290 card?
It is card #290 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.