1965 Topps #106 Gene Oliver
About Gene Oliver
Oliver's best season was also Milwaukee's last. He batted .270 with 21 home runs and 58 RBIs across 122 games, splitting the year between catcher and first base, and became one of six Braves to reach 20 homers - a National League record for one club at the time. On June 8 at Wrigley Field he capped a six-run tenth inning with a home run, one of four the Braves hit in that frame alongside Joe Torre, Felipe Alou and Hank Aaron. His inside-the-park drive on September 22 was the last home run a Milwaukee Brave ever hit in County Stadium. Card 106 is a second-series number.
Eugene George Oliver (1935-2007) was born in Moline, Illinois, the fourth of five children of a Belgian father and a Polish mother. A three-sport star at Alleman Catholic High in Rock Island, he turned down a $60,000 bonus from the Detroit Tigers to take a football scholarship to Northwestern, then lost both when a shoulder separation ended his football career. He rehabilitated the arm, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in January 1956, and hit .333 with 39 home runs in Class D that first summer. Oliver debuted in St. Louis on June 6, 1959, led the Pacific Coast League with 36 homers for Portland in 1961, and became the Cardinals' regular catcher in 1962 before a June 1963 trade sent him to the Milwaukee Braves. His best year came in 1965: .270 with 21 home runs. Stints with the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs closed out a ten-year career that finished at .246 with 93 home runs and 320 RBIs in 786 games. A strong-armed catcher, first baseman and left fielder known for his wit, he instructed in the minors into the 1980s, was inducted into the Quad Cities Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died in Rock Island in 2007.
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 | 362 | 4 | 75 | 186 | 64 | 19 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 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
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #2 National League 1964 Batting Leaders
- #23 Bob Tiefenauer
- #44 Wade Blasingame
- #63 Ty Cline
- #82 Braves 1965 Rookie Stars
- #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
- #287 Gary Kolb
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #106 card?
It is card #106 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Oliver 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.