1964 Topps #186 Roman Mejias
About Roman Mejias
Boston's 1964 outfield had no room for Mejias: 19-year-old rookie Tony Conigliaro took left, Carl Yastrzemski center and Lee Thomas right, leaving the veteran a bench bat. He got into 62 games with only 101 at-bats, hitting .238 with two home runs and four runs batted in, and made his final big-league appearance on October 4. Pete Runnels, the batting champion Houston had wanted in exchange for him, fared no better, retiring in mid-May after a 10-for-51 start. Card 186 belongs to the second series and pictures Mejias with Boston.
Roman Mejias Gomez, born August 9, 1925 at the Central Manuelita sugar mill in Cuba's Las Villas province, was a right-handed outfielder who played nine big-league seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Colt .45s and Boston Red Sox, in 1955 and from 1957 through 1964. American records listed his birthplace for decades as nearby Abreus. Pirates scout George Sisler signed him out of a 1953 Havana tryout camp, and Mejias was Pittsburgh's Opening Day right fielder as a 1955 rookie, ahead of his roommate Roberto Clemente; once Clemente claimed the job he settled in as a spare outfielder behind Clemente, Bill Virdon and Bob Skinner. Houston took him in the October 1961 National League expansion draft and finally played him every day. A six-foot, 175-pound right fielder remembered for his warmth and enthusiasm, he batted .254 with 449 hits, 54 home runs and 202 runs batted in across 627 games. He was a player-coach for Boston's Triple-A Toronto club in 1965, closed his playing career with the Sankei Atoms in Japan in 1966, and was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in exile in 1997. He died in Sun City, California, on February 22, 2023, at 97.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 233 | 1 | 20 | 110 | 70 | 19 | 10 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 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: #579 Boston Red Sox
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #8 1963 American League Batting Leaders
- #10 1963 American League Home Run Leaders
- #12 1963 American League R.B.I. Leaders
- #25 Bill Monbouquette
- #60 Frank Malzone
- #79 Bob Heffner
- #93 Gary Geiger
- #112 Bob Tillman
- #153 Dick Williams
- #170 Dick Radatz
- #182 Sox Sockers
- #210 Carl Yastrzemski
- #228 Felix Mantilla
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #186 card?
It is card #186 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roman Mejias of the Boston Red Sox.
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.