1963 Topps #293 Bill Pleis
About Bill Pleis
Pleis turns up at #293 in the fourth series of the 1963 set, a Minnesota Twins card; his rookie issue had come a year earlier. The season around it brought a career-high six wins against two losses in 36 outings with a 4.37 ERA, plus one performance he never matched. On June 28, 1963, in Washington, he went the distance against the Senators in an 11-4 Twins win, scattering eight hits and issuing a single walk while striking out six. It was the only complete game of his major-league career.
William Pleis III was born August 5, 1937, in St. Louis and signed out of Kirkwood High School in 1955 after a late-August tryout camp. Five seasons of minor-league drift followed - Class D Orlando, Triple-A Louisville, stops at Lafayette, Twin Falls, Allentown and Memphis, a summer carrying hod for his uncle's construction company after he refused a demotion, and six months on the military service list - before the left-hander stuck with the Minnesota Twins out of their first spring training. He debuted April 16, 1961, and on April 22 was the winning pitcher in the franchise's first victory at Metropolitan Stadium. A reliever in all but ten of his 190 big-league games, all of them for Minnesota, Pleis finished 21-16 with a 4.07 ERA, 184 strikeouts, 13 saves and one complete game. The Twins traded him to Washington in February 1967 for infielder Ken Hamlin, then bought his contract back that September so he could qualify for his pension. He scouted for nearly 40 years, joining the Houston Astros in 1969 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1976, and retired in 2006. He died October 17, 2025, at 88.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 178 | 0 | 2 | 74 | 68 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #162 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #4 1962 American League Home Run Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #26 Ray Moore
- #40 Vic Power
- #75 Bob Allison
- #89 Dick Stigman
- #110 Rich Rollins
- #127 Bill Tuttle
- #165 Jim Kaat
- #186 Jerry Zimmerman
- #198 Lenny Green
- #220 Camilo Pascual
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #293 card?
It is card #293 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Pleis of the Minnesota Twins.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.