1965 Topps #122 Bill Pleis
About Bill Pleis
The 1965 card, #122, lands early in the second series. The Twins uniform on it belongs to a pennant winner: Minnesota took the 1965 American League flag, the first in Twins history and the franchise's first since 1933, when the club still played in Washington. Pleis pitched to a 2.98 ERA, his best over a full season, with four saves and a 4-4 record across 41 games. He got one World Series inning, taking the ball in the eighth at Dodger Stadium in Game Four and giving up a run in a 7-2 defeat that squared the series at two games apiece; Los Angeles won it in seven.
William Pleis III was born August 5, 1937, in St. Louis and signed out of Kirkwood High School in 1955 after a late-August tryout camp. Five seasons of minor-league drift followed - Class D Orlando, Triple-A Louisville, stops at Lafayette, Twin Falls, Allentown and Memphis, a summer carrying hod for his uncle's construction company after he refused a demotion, and six months on the military service list - before the left-hander stuck with the Minnesota Twins out of their first spring training. He debuted April 16, 1961, and on April 22 was the winning pitcher in the franchise's first victory at Metropolitan Stadium. A reliever in all but ten of his 190 big-league games, all of them for Minnesota, Pleis finished 21-16 with a 4.07 ERA, 184 strikeouts, 13 saves and one complete game. The Twins traded him to Washington in February 1967 for infielder Ken Hamlin, then bought his contract back that September so he could qualify for his pension. He scouted for nearly 40 years, joining the Houston Astros in 1969 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1976, and retired in 2006. He died October 17, 2025, at 88.
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 | 279 | 0 | 46 | 169 | 44 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 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. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Shop 1965 Topps cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
Team card: #24 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #1 American League 1964 Batting Leaders
- #3 American League 1964 Home Run Leaders
- #5 American League 1964 RBI Leaders
- #11 American League 1964 Strikeout Leaders
- #39 Gerry Arrigo
- #62 Jim Kaat
- #90 Rich Rollins
- #108 Don Mincher
- #157 Zoilo Versalles
- #171 Jim Roland
- #180 Bob Allison
- #201 Twins 1965 Rookie Stars
- #216 Al Worthington
- #237 Bernie Allen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #122 card?
It is card #122 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Pleis of the Minnesota Twins.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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.