1965 Topps #145 Luis Tiant
Tiant's rookie card and one of the keys to the 1965 set.
About Luis Tiant
1965 Topps #145 is Luis Tiant's rookie card and one of the keys to the set. It sits in the second series, and it carries its weight in the set on the strength of the name on the front. Tiant reached the set on the strength of a 10-4, 2.83 half season in 1964. Cleveland then handed him the rotation in 1965: 41 appearances, 30 of them starts, an 11-11 record with a 3.53 ERA, 152 strikeouts, 10 complete games and two shutouts across 196.1 innings.
Luis Clemente Tiant Vega, born November 23, 1940 in Marianao, Cuba, was a right-handed pitcher whose 19 big-league seasons ran from 1964 to 1982, most of them with the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. The son of Negro leagues star Luis Tiant Sr., he was pitching in Mexico and Cuba when Cleveland bought his contract in 1961 on the recommendation of former Indians All-Star Bobby Avila; with Fidel Castro's Cuba closed to him, he did not see his parents for 14 years. He debuted on July 19, 1964 with an 11-strikeout, 3-0 shutout of the defending American League champion New York Yankees, beating Whitey Ford. A fractured right shoulder blade and a release by Minnesota nearly finished him in 1971, but he rebuilt his delivery in the minors into the twisting, turn-your-back windup that made El Tiante a Fenway Park institution, winning 20 or more games four times and beating Cincinnati twice in the 1975 World Series. He finished 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA, 2,416 strikeouts, 187 complete games and 49 shutouts, the most of any pitcher never elected to Cooperstown. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame took him in 1997 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. He died October 8, 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,219 | 5 | 50 | 311 | 269 | 228 | 151 | 205 | 0 |
| SGC | 304 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 59 | 69 | 70 | 85 | 1 |
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: #481 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #17 Johnny Romano
- #76 Sam McDowell
- #92 Dick Howser
- #96 Sonny Siebert
- #105 Chico Salmon
- #128 Vic Davalillo
- #166 Indians 1965 Rookie Stars
- #185 Max Alvis
- #235 Chuck Hinton
- #262 Bud Daley
- #283 Fred Whitfield
- #301 Birdie Tebbetts
- #317 Don McMahon
- #332 Ted Abernathy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #145 card?
It is card #145 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Luis Tiant of the Cleveland Indians.
Is 1965 Topps #145 a rookie card?
Yes - #145 is the 1965 Topps rookie card of Luis Tiant.
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.