1964 Topps #217 Jim King
About Jim King
The third-series #217 covers King's biggest power season. In 1963 he hit 24 home runs and drove in 62, both career highs, across 136 games, though his average sagged to .231 and his on-base percentage to .300 as a bench-thin Washington club kept running him out against left-handers. He and road roommate Don Lock spent the summer chasing each other for the team home-run lead, and Lock's 27 won it. King's right-field arm was the other half of the job - 12 outfield assists, the best of them on August 10, when his throw on a two-out ninth-inning single cut down Baltimore's Luis Aparicio at the plate to save a 6-5 win.
James Hubert King, a left-handed hitter born August 27, 1932 in Elkins, Arkansas, broke in with the Chicago Cubs in 1955 and later played for the Cardinals and the Giants, starting in left field in the first major league game played in California on April 15, 1958. Two seasons with Toronto of the International League followed, the second of them good enough - 24 home runs, 86 RBIs, a .384 on-base percentage - to win him the 1960 league Most Valuable Player award. Cleveland bought him and then left him unprotected, and the expansion Washington Senators took him in the December 1960 draft. He outlasted all 27 other original Senators draftees, staying in Washington until June 1967. His best season was 1963: career highs of 24 home runs and 62 RBIs. The next May he hit for the cycle at Fenway Park, the only cycle in that Washington franchise's eleven seasons. Teammates called him "Sky" King, for the television series and his dread of flying. His last game came September 24, 1967, closing 11 major league seasons at .240 with 117 home runs and 401 RBIs in 1,125 games. He went home to Elkins, spent 24 years with the local telephone company while raising cattle on his farm, and never boarded an airplane again.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 318 | 5 | 37 | 188 | 62 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 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: #343 Washington Senators
More Washington Senators cards:
- #28 Claude Osteen
- #46 Ed Brinkman
- #52 Chuck Hinton
- #92 Steve Ridzik
- #114 Don Lock
- #134 Don Zimmer
- #167 Senators 1964 Rookie Stars
- #187 Ed Roebuck
- #203 John Kennedy
- #261 Jim Hannan
- #277 Ken Retzer
- #294 Ken Hunt
- #311 Tom Brown
- #327 Don Blasingame
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #217 card?
It is card #217 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim King of the Washington Senators.
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.