1964 Topps #316 Gene Oliver
About Gene Oliver
Bobby Bragan made a turnstile of first base in 1964, and Oliver shared it with Joe Torre and five other men while losing May time to a pulled muscle. He came to bat only 279 times but made them count, batting .276 with 13 home runs - eleven of which won a game, put Milwaukee ahead, or pulled the Braves even. He caught exactly one game all season. Card 316 places him in a Milwaukee uniform in the fourth series. The number is an ordinary one, and five years past his debut.
Eugene George Oliver (1935-2007) was born in Moline, Illinois, the fourth of five children of a Belgian father and a Polish mother. A three-sport star at Alleman Catholic High in Rock Island, he turned down a $60,000 bonus from the Detroit Tigers to take a football scholarship to Northwestern, then lost both when a shoulder separation ended his football career. He rehabilitated the arm, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in January 1956, and hit .333 with 39 home runs in Class D that first summer. Oliver debuted in St. Louis on June 6, 1959, led the Pacific Coast League with 36 homers for Portland in 1961, and became the Cardinals' regular catcher in 1962 before a June 1963 trade sent him to the Milwaukee Braves. His best year came in 1965: .270 with 21 home runs. Stints with the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs closed out a ten-year career that finished at .246 with 93 home runs and 320 RBIs in 786 games. A strong-armed catcher, first baseman and left fielder known for his wit, he instructed in the minors into the 1980s, was inducted into the Quad Cities Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died in Rock Island in 2007.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 212 | 2 | 36 | 93 | 52 | 19 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #132 Milwaukee Braves
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #3 1963 National League Pitching Leaders
- #7 1963 National League Batting Leaders
- #9 1963 National League Home Run Leaders
- #11 1963 National League R.B.I. Leaders
- #35 Ed Mathews
- #53 Denis Menke
- #65 Felipe Alou
- #70 Joe Torre
- #94 Braves 1964 Rookie Stars
- #115 Frank Bolling
- #152 Denver Lemaster
- #171 Ty Cline
- #198 Len Gabrielson
- #218 Hank Fischer
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #316 card?
It is card #316 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Oliver of the Milwaukee Braves.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.