1965 Topps #174 Joe Jay
About Joe Jay
Card 174 arrives in the second series, after a 1964 that got Jay most of the way back: 11-11 with a 3.39 ERA over 183 innings, ten complete games, and 134 strikeouts against only 36 walks. He fanned a career-high 13 Dodgers on August 11 in a 4-2 win and 12 Braves on September 4 in a 2-0 loss. Cincinnati won nine straight in late September and briefly climbed into first place, then dropped four of its last five and finished a single game behind the Cardinals, who went on to win the World Series.
Joseph Richard Jay, born August 15, 1935, in Middletown, Connecticut, was a switch-hitting right-hander who pitched 13 seasons in the majors between 1953 and 1966 for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee signed him out of high school in 1953 for a $40,000 bonus, making him one of the original bonus babies and the first Little League alumnus to reach the big leagues; the bonus rule of the day pinned him to a major league roster before he had learned his trade in the minors. Seven uneven Braves seasons followed. After the 1960 campaign Milwaukee sent Jay and Juan Pizarro to Cincinnati for shortstop Roy McMillan, and the move remade him: 21 wins in 1961, 21 more in 1962, and a pennant for the Reds. He finished 99-91 with a 3.77 ERA and 999 strikeouts over 1,546 1/3 innings. Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame, a team honor, in July 2008. He died September 27, 2024, in Lutz, Florida, at 89.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 252 | 1 | 43 | 135 | 48 | 19 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 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: #316 Cincinnati Reds
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- #47 Tommy Harper
- #60 Jim O'Toole
- #75 Deron Johnson
- #102 Steve Boros
- #120 Frank Robinson
- #141 Charlie James
- #158 Dick Sisler
- #192 Jim Coker
- #207 Pete Rose
- #221 John Tsitouris
- #243 Reds 1965 Rookie Stars
- #263 Marty Keough
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #174 card?
It is card #174 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Jay of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.