1965 Topps #461 Braves Rookie Stars - Clay Carroll / Phil Niekro
On this card: Clay Carroll, Phil Niekro
About this card
This is one of the 55 Rookie Stars cards in the 1965 Topps set, each picturing two to four young players - 126 players in all - under a team banner, except #577 and #581, which carry American League and National League banners over players from three clubs. Joe Morgan (#16), Steve Carlton (#477), Jim (Catfish) Hunter (#526) and Tony Perez (#581) make their Topps debuts on these cards.
The story on this card
1965 Topps #461 sits in the set's sixth print series and is Carroll's rookie card, a multi-player Rookie Stars pairing that puts him in a Milwaukee Braves cap beside Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro, which makes it one of the key rookie cards of the set. Carroll opened the season in the majors, was sent down on June 1 to the Braves' Triple-A club in Atlanta, where he made 13 starts, and was back in Milwaukee in early August, finishing 0-1 with a 4.41 ERA in 19 games. A Clanton, Alabama mill worker's son turned Reds bullpen workhorse, nicknamed Hawk, who led the National League with 37 saves in 1972 and won a game in both the 1970 and 1975 World Series.
A second Rookie Stars card, #461, sits in the sixth series of the 1965 set and pairs Niekro with fellow Braves right-hander Clay Carroll. It is one of the set's key rookie cards, though Niekro's own rookie card came a year earlier on the 1964 #541. The summer it reached packs he was sticking for good, working almost entirely out of the Milwaukee bullpen: 2-3, a 2.89 ERA and six saves in 41 games, only one a start. His first big-league win came in relief at Pittsburgh on May 13. Phil Niekro, Knucksie, rode a knuckleball through 24 seasons to 318 wins, a 3.35 ERA, five All-Star teams and five Gold Gloves, nearly all of it with the Braves; the only knuckleballer to reach 300 wins, he entered the Hall of Fame in 1997.
Sources: Wikipedia (Clay Carroll) · Wikipedia (Phil Niekro) · SABR BioProject (Clay Carroll) · SABR BioProject (Phil Niekro)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,811 | 1 | 77 | 364 | 353 | 344 | 264 | 405 | 3 |
| SGC | 539 | 0 | 2 | 33 | 79 | 116 | 119 | 171 | 19 |
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
Team card: #426 Milwaukee Braves
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #2 National League 1964 Batting Leaders
- #23 Bob Tiefenauer
- #44 Wade Blasingame
- #63 Ty Cline
- #82 Braves 1965 Rookie Stars
- #106 Gene Oliver
- #127 Frank Lary
- #156 Bob Sadowski
- #170 Hank Aaron
- #182 Mike de la Hoz
- #200 Joe Torre
- #223 Dan Osinski
- #241 Mack Jones
- #269 Frank Bolling
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #461 card?
It is card #461 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Clay Carroll and Phil Niekro. This is one of the 55 Rookie Stars cards in the 1965 Topps set, each picturing two to four young players - 126 players in all - under a team banner, except #577 and #581, which carry American League and National League banners over players from three clubs. Joe Morgan (#16), Steve Carlton (#477), Jim (Catfish) Hunter (#526) and Tony Perez (#581) make their Topps debuts on these cards.
Is 1965 Topps #461 a rookie card?
Yes - #461 is the rookie card of Clay Carroll. Phil Niekro had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
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.