1965 Topps #327 Denis Menke
About Denis Menke
1965 Topps #327, a fourth-series card, shows Menke with the Milwaukee Braves in a year that came apart on him. A violent home-plate collision on May 13 and a bout of phlebitis cost him 38 games, and when he came back the lost mobility pushed him into occasional pinch-hitting duty. He finished with only 71 games, 181 at-bats and a .243 average, 54 of those games at shortstop. General manager John McHale spent the winter insisting that a healthy Menke on two good legs would still have great years ahead of him.
Denis John Menke was born July 21, 1940, on a 480-acre farm outside Bancroft, Iowa, and signed with the Milwaukee Braves in May 1958 for a bonus reported at between $125,000 and $175,000, one of the largest of the years before the amateur draft. After Pacific Coast League Rookie of the Year honors at Vancouver in 1961, he debuted on April 14, 1962, and went on to play 13 major-league seasons for the Braves, Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds, playing shortstop, second base, third base and first base. He batted .250 with 101 home runs and 606 runs batted in over 1,598 games, and was picked for the National League All-Star team as a shortstop in 1969 and 1970. In November 1971 Houston sent him to Cincinnati in the seven-player deal built around Joe Morgan, and he started at third base for the 1972 pennant winners, homering off Catfish Hunter in Game Five of the World Series and setting a Series record with 29 chances at third without an error. He played his last game July 10, 1974, managed in the minors, then coached in the majors for two decades, including eight seasons as the Philadelphia Phillies' hitting coach. He died December 1, 2020, in Tarpon Springs, Florida, at 80.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 209 | 3 | 29 | 109 | 50 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #426 Milwaukee Braves
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- #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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #327 card?
It is card #327 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Denis Menke of the Milwaukee Braves.
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.