1965 Topps #17 Johnny Romano
About Johnny Romano
Series-1 card #17 still pictures Romano as an Indian, though Cleveland had already traded him on January 20, 1965, sending him to the White Sox with Tommy John and Tommie Agee in a three-team deal involving Kansas City that brought Rocky Colavito back to the Indians. The card reports his last Cleveland season, a rebound from the finger injury to .241 with 19 home runs and 47 RBI in 106 games in 1964, a year he split the catching with Joe Azcue.
John Anthony Romano Jr., a catcher nicknamed 'Honey' by an uncle, signed with the Chicago White Sox organization in 1954 out of Hoboken, New Jersey, and set a Class B Three-I League record with 38 home runs for Waterloo in 1955. He reached the majors with Chicago late in 1958, backed up Sherm Lollar on the pennant-winning 1959 White Sox, and became Cleveland's regular catcher in 1960. An All-Star in 1961 and 1962, he hit 91 home runs as a Cleveland catcher, a franchise record for the position until Sandy Alomar Jr. passed it. A broken finger in May 1963 cost him half a season, and he never again matched the .299 average or the 25 homers of his All-Star years. A 1965 trade returned him to Chicago and a 1966 trade sent him to St. Louis, where he closed out a ten-year career with the World Series champion Cardinals, finishing at .255 with 129 home runs and 417 RBI in 905 games.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 321 | 3 | 55 | 176 | 53 | 21 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 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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Team card: #481 Cleveland Indians
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- #145 Luis Tiant
- #166 Indians 1965 Rookie Stars
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- #235 Chuck Hinton
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #17 card?
It is card #17 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Romano of the Cleveland Indians.
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.