1964 Topps #116 Twins Rookie Stars - Jay Ward / Tony Oliva
On this card: Jay Ward, Tony Oliva
About this card
This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
The story on this card
Ward came back to Minnesota as a September call-up in 1964 and got into 12 games, batting .226 with four runs scored while playing mostly second base. Topps put him on card #116 in the second series, one of the multi-player Rookie Stars panels, alongside another Twins youngster named Tony Oliva. Collectors look to #116 in the 1964 set for Oliva, whose own rookie card came in the 1963 set and who is now in the Hall of Fame; for Ward, it is his rookie card. A Missouri infielder-outfielder who reached the majors with the Twins in 1963, later took a 1966 turn in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons, and afterward put in decades as a minor league manager and big league hitting coach.
Card #116 pairs him with Jay Ward on a second-series Twins Rookie Stars card. The rookie-card designation here belongs to Ward alone; Oliva's own arrived a year earlier, and this one is not it. The timing was almost comic. While the card sat in packs he was hitting .323 with 217 hits, 43 doubles and 32 home runs, a season that took 19 of 20 first-place Rookie of the Year votes and finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player ballot. Minnesota's smooth-swinging Cuban right fielder, the 1964 American League Rookie of the Year and a three-time batting champion who made the All-Star team in each of his first eight full seasons before knee injuries took over; Cooperstown called in December 2021.
Sources: Wikipedia (Jay Ward) · Wikipedia (Tony Oliva)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,351 | 2 | 47 | 315 | 366 | 224 | 160 | 234 | 3 |
| SGC | 325 | 0 | 2 | 20 | 64 | 80 | 72 | 84 | 3 |
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: #318 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #2 1963 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #4 1963 American League Pitching Leaders
- #6 1963 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #8 1963 American League Batting Leaders
- #10 1963 American League Home Run Leaders
- #12 1963 American League R.B.I. Leaders
- #15 Zoilo Versalles
- #34 Jim Perry
- #54 Sam Mele
- #73 Jimmie Hall
- #81 All-Star Vets
- #90 Earl Battey
- #156 Bill Dailey
- #177 Harmon Killebrew
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #116 card?
It is card #116 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jay Ward and Tony Oliva. This is one of the fifty-seven two-player Rookie Stars cards in the 1964 Topps set: fifty-three pair two prospects from one club, and the four league cards (#548, #564, #568 and #572) pair prospects from two clubs. Every one of them is a rookie card for at least one of its two players.
Is #116 Tony Oliva's rookie card?
No. #116 Twins Rookie Stars is Jay Ward's rookie card; Tony Oliva's rookie card is 1963 Topps #228, so the rookie designation on this card belongs to Ward.
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.