1965 Topps #171 Jim Roland
About Jim Roland
The 1965 card, #171, comes from the second series. It shows him with a club he would not throw a single pitch for all season. A rough spring under new pitching coach Johnny Sain and a pulled thigh muscle cost him the staff job he was chasing, and Minnesota optioned him to the Denver Bears of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Working mostly as a starter there, he went 8-6 with a 3.81 ERA in 156 innings while a knee hurt in protest of an umpire's call and a habit of walking off the mound wore on manager Cal Ermer. Recalled in September, he watched a 102-win pennant club from the bullpen without appearing.
James Ivan Roland Jr. (1942-2010) was a left-handed pitcher, born in Franklin, North Carolina and raised in Raleigh, where a blazing fastball at Needham Broughton High School brought the scouts around. The Minnesota Twins signed him on his graduation in 1961 for a $50,000 bonus, reported at the time as the largest the Senators/Twins franchise had ever paid a pitcher. A 6-foot-3 southpaw with a hard fastball and a sharp curve, he debuted as a 19-year-old in September 1962 and pitched parts of six seasons for Minnesota (1962-64, 1966-68), his climb stalled by an elbow that gave out in 1963 and by two seasons stuck in Triple-A. Sold to the Oakland Athletics in February 1969, he settled in as a long reliever and mop-up man, the role that drew his best work out of him. He finished in 1972 with short stints for Oakland, the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers, closing a ten-year career at 19-17 with a 3.22 ERA, nine saves and 272 strikeouts in 216 games. He then returned to North Carolina, represented a sporting-goods company, and was active in his Shelby church until his death from cancer in 2010.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 280 | 3 | 42 | 150 | 58 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 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.
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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
- #122 Bill Pleis
- #157 Zoilo Versalles
- #180 Bob Allison
- #201 Twins 1965 Rookie Stars
- #216 Al Worthington
- #237 Bernie Allen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #171 card?
It is card #171 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Roland 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.