1966 Topps #224 American League 1965 Pitching Leaders - Jim Grant / Mel Stottlemyre / Jim Kaat
On this card: Jim Grant, Mel Stottlemyre, Jim Kaat
About this card
Cards #215-226 are the twelve League Leaders, printed in the middle of the third series rather than at the front of the set - the one structural quirk of 1966. Each card lists the 1965 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
The story on this card
1966 Topps #224 is the American League Pitching Leaders card, from the League Leaders subset in the set's third series, ranking the top winners of the 1965 season. Jim Grant of the Minnesota Twins leads the board at 21-7 with a 3.30 ERA, the AL's best win total that year and the season in which he became the first black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League. Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees follows at 20-9 with a 2.63 ERA, his first 20-win season and a league-leading 291 innings pitched. Jim Kaat of the Twins rounds out the trio at 18-11 with a 2.83 ERA. Grant and Kaat helped carry Minnesota to the 1965 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Jim 'Mudcat' Grant was the Cleveland and Minnesota right-hander whose 21-7 year for the 1965 Twins made him the American League's first Black 20-game winner, then beat the Dodgers twice in that fall's World Series. Mel Stottlemyre - Yankees sinkerballer from 1964 to 1974 and the one steady arm through the franchise's lean years: three 20-win seasons, five All-Star selections, 40 shutouts, then 23 seasons as a big-league pitching coach with five World Series rings. Jim Kaat was the Twins' durable left-handed ace through the 1960s, a 283-game winner over a then-record 25 seasons who took 16 straight Gold Gloves and led the American League with 25 wins in 1966.
Sources: Wikipedia (Mudcat Grant) · Wikipedia (Mel Stottlemyre) · Wikipedia (Jim Kaat) · SABR BioProject (Mudcat Grant) · SABR BioProject (Mel Stottlemyre) · SABR BioProject (Jim Kaat) · National Baseball Hall of Fame (1) · National Baseball Hall of Fame (2) · Baseball Almanac (Jim Grant) · Baseball Almanac · Baseball Almanac (Jim Kaat)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 371 | 1 | 15 | 128 | 97 | 59 | 39 | 28 | 4 |
| SGC | 28 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 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. Where SGC registers no separate row for a variation state, its slabs of that card are listed under the base state.
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Related cards
Team cards: #526 Minnesota Twins, #92 New York Yankees
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #224 card?
It is card #224 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Grant, Mel Stottlemyre and Jim Kaat. Cards #215-226 are the twelve League Leaders, printed in the middle of the third series rather than at the front of the set - the one structural quirk of 1966. Each card lists the 1965 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
How many cards are in the 1966 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 613 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no number used twice, and 14 cards carry catalogued print variations - five checklists, the trade and sold statement backs, the three-state #43 Don Landrum, three team-card dot pairs and the #161 Jerry Lumpe white streak - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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.