1965 Topps #220 Billy Williams
About Billy Williams
Two 1965 cards, both built on a .312, 33-homer, 98-RBI 1964. Card #220 is his own, from the third series; card #4 is the National League home run leaders card in the opening subset, where he stands with Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Johnny Callison and Jim Hart -- a card carrying a small printing slip, since the back lists Mays with New York instead of San Francisco. That summer Williams hit over .400 into early June, then played the entire All-Star Game at Shea Stadium and homered off John Wyatt in the fourth inning. He cooled off afterward and settled for what was, for him, an ordinary year.
Billy Williams played left field for the Chicago Cubs from 1959 through 1974, joining Ernie Banks and Ron Santo in an everyday core that pulled a long-buried franchise back toward contention in the late 1960s. Born in Whistler, Alabama, he liked to say his signing bonus was a bus ticket and a cigar for his father. Bigotry in the Double-A Texas League drove him home in 1959 until Cubs scout Buck O'Neil came to Whistler and coaxed him back. He hit .278 with 25 home runs and 86 RBIs in 1961 and became the first Cub named National League Rookie of the Year. A six-time All-Star known as "Sweet-Swinging Billy from Whistler" for a short, effortless stroke, he won the 1972 batting title at .333 and finished MVP runner-up twice, in 1970 and 1972, both times behind Cincinnati's Johnny Bench. He played 1,117 straight games from September 1963 to September 1970, a National League record that stood until 1983. Williams closed an 18-year career, the last two as Oakland's designated hitter, with a .290 average, 2,711 hits, 426 home runs and 1,475 RBIs -- a home run total that then ranked eighth in major league history among left-handed hitters. He entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and later coached 19 seasons in the majors.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Internet Archive
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 920 | 3 | 35 | 216 | 202 | 151 | 122 | 189 | 2 |
| SGC | 185 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 27 | 38 | 45 | 52 | 5 |
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.
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Related cards
More Billy Williams in this set: #4 League Leaders
Team card: #91 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #4 National League 1964 Home Run Leaders
- #6 National League 1964 RBI Leaders
- #10 National League 1964 Pitching Leaders
- #14 Len Gabrielson
- #27 Dick Bertell
- #34 Cal Koonce
- #64 Lou Burdette
- #110 Ron Santo
- #149 Wayne Schurr
- #161 Frank Baumann
- #165 Dick Ellsworth
- #186 Billy Cowan
- #202 Leo Burke
- #244 Lindy McDaniel
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #220 card?
It is card #220 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs.
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.