1963 Topps #227 Jim Grant
About Jim Grant
The third series of 1963 brought #227, fronting a season the Army cut in half. Ordered to active duty on November 2, 1961, Grant spent his year at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, pitching for the post team and managing it, and got to the Indians on weekends. A 30-day furlough let him beat the Yankees 7-1 on May 11, but he came out of that stretch with a sore arm. Discharged early, he was back with Cleveland for good in mid-July and worked only 26 games, 23 of them starts, going 7-10 with a 4.27 ERA in the lightest big-league season he had yet had.
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: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 183 | 0 | 7 | 84 | 64 | 20 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 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: #451 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #14 Pedro Ramos
- #36 Jerry Kindall
- #48 Birdie Tebbetts
- #72 Johnny Romano
- #103 Chuck Essegian
- #129 Gary Bell
- #152 Ron Nischwitz
- #170 Joe Adcock
- #187 Willie Kirkland
- #211 Fred Whitfield
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #248 Tito Francona
- #266 Bob Allen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #227 card?
It is card #227 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Grant of the Cleveland Indians.
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.