1964 Topps #185 Jim O'Toole
About Jim O'Toole
O'Toole's 1964 Topps card, #185, a series-2 issue, reports his 1963 season: 17-14 with a 2.88 ERA, 146 strikeouts and 12 complete games, and the honor that came with it. Alvin Dark handed him the ball to start the All-Star Game for the National League that July, and he worked the first two innings of a 5-3 win over an American League club that opened with the Angels' Ken McBride. O'Toole called the selection one of the proudest moments of his career. It was the first of back-to-back 17-win years.
James Jerome O'Toole was born January 10, 1937, on Chicago's South Side, the son of a city policeman who taught him to box. A self-described cocky kid, he picked up the nickname 'Rocky' and fought Golden Gloves. He attended Leo High School, which had no baseball team, so he learned to pitch on the sandlots before a season at the University of Wisconsin. A 9-1 summer for Mitchell in South Dakota's Basin League brought a $50,000 bonus from Cincinnati. The left-hander won 20 games at Double-A Nashville in 1958 and debuted for the Reds that September 26. He joined the rotation in 1959 and was a fixture in it through 1964. In 1961 he went 19-9 with a 3.10 ERA as Cincinnati took the pennant, then started Games One and Four of the World Series and lost both to Whitey Ford. Three more double-digit-win seasons followed; he made his only All-Star team in 1963 and pitched to a 2.66 ERA in 1964, the best of his full seasons. Traded to the Chicago White Sox for 1967, his last major-league year, he finished 98-84 with 1,039 strikeouts in ten seasons. Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame in 1970, his first year of eligibility. He died in Cincinnati in 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 278 | 0 | 40 | 132 | 70 | 19 | 4 | 11 | 2 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 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: #403 Cincinnati Reds
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #3 1963 National League Pitching Leaders
- #5 1963 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #33 Reds 1964 Rookie Stars
- #49 Bill Henry
- #72 Chico Cardenas
- #80 Vada Pinson
- #106 Joe Nuxhall
- #125 Pete Rose
- #144 Al Worthington
- #162 Hitting Area
- #166 Marty Keough
- #207 Fred Hutchinson
- #233 Hal Smith
- #260 Frank Robinson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #185 card?
It is card #185 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim O'Toole of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.