1965 Topps #520 Tony Cloninger
About Tony Cloninger
Card #520 is the second of his high numbers, drawn from the seventh and final series of 1965 Topps and still showing Milwaukee on the cap. It reports the 1964 breakout: 19-14, a 3.56 ERA, 15 complete games and 242 2/3 innings, with his 19 wins and Denny Lemaster's 17 accounting for more than 40 percent of a struggling club's 88 victories. He missed a no-hitter against Pittsburgh on April 29 when Willie Stargell singled with two out in the seventh, and on August 21 he carried a perfect game into the sixth against Houston and still lost.
Tony Lee Cloninger was a North Carolina fireballer who signed with the Milwaukee Braves in the spring of 1958 for a $100,000 bonus and reached the majors on June 15, 1961, two months shy of his 21st birthday. As Warren Spahn's career wound down, Cloninger took over as staff ace and led the Braves in wins three straight seasons, peaking in 1965 at 24-11 with a 3.29 ERA and 211 strikeouts. He could swing a bat, too: on July 3, 1966 he hit two grand slams and drove in nine runs in a 17-3 rout of the Giants, and he remains the only pitcher in major-league history to hit two slams in a game. A pulled shoulder muscle, an eye ailment and a sore elbow cost him most of 1967, and Atlanta traded him to Cincinnati in June 1968. He started Game Three of the 1970 World Series for the pennant-winning Reds, closed out his playing days with the Cardinals in 1972 at 113-97 with a 4.07 ERA over twelve seasons, then coached, winning four World Series rings in the New York Yankees bullpen. He was never elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame took him in 2004. Cloninger died on July 24, 2018.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 316 | 3 | 57 | 169 | 51 | 17 | 13 | 5 | 1 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 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
- #106 Gene Oliver
- #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
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #520 card?
It is card #520 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony Cloninger of the Milwaukee Braves.
Is 1965 Topps #520 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last series, #507-598. Unlike most 1960s Topps sets the 1965 highs are not scarce as a run - the premium sits on the short-printed cards inside #523-598.
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.