1966 Topps #565 Jimmy Piersall
Part of the 1966 high-number run, the scarce end of the set, where 43 of the 76 cards were short-printed; all four published short-print lists include this card.
About Jimmy Piersall
Topps printed him as 'Jimmy Piersall' on card #565, reporting a 1965 season spent mostly on the Angels bench: 30 hits in 112 at-bats over 53 games for a .268 average. The seventh series is the set's scarce high-number run. His 1965 card read Los Angeles Angels; this one reads California Angels. He turned 36 that November, seven years removed from his last season in Boston.
James Anthony Piersall, born November 14, 1929 in Waterbury, Connecticut, played 17 major-league seasons (1950, 1952-1967) as an outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, New York Mets and Los Angeles/California Angels. Prized for his center-field glove, he made two All-Star teams (1954, 1956), won Gold Gloves in 1958 and 1961, and finished at .272 with 104 home runs and 591 RBI in 1,734 games. In 1952, the rookie season that collapsed into a publicized breakdown, he was calling himself the 'Waterbury Wizard' after his hometown; that summer ended at Westborough State Hospital with electroshock treatment. His recovery became the 1955 memoir Fear Strikes Out, written with Al Hirshberg, and the 1957 film starring Anthony Perkins. The showmanship never stopped: he batted in a Beatles wig and played air guitar on his bat. After retiring in 1967 he broadcast for decades, most famously beside Harry Caray on Chicago White Sox games beginning in 1977. The Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame inducted him in September 2010. He died June 3, 2017 in Wheaton, Illinois.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 349 | 4 | 20 | 127 | 102 | 45 | 35 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 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. 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 card: #131 California Angels
More California Angels cards:
- #5 Jim Fregosi
- #23 Jack Sanford
- #42 Aubrey Gatewood
- #62 Merritt Ranew
- #83 Albie Pearson
- #102 Ed Kirkpatrick
- #152 Frank Malzone
- #155 Marcelino Lopez
- #173 Al Spangler
- #192 Vic Power
- #213 Fred Newman
- #249 Bill Rigney
- #263 Tom Egan
- #280 Bobby Knoop
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #565 card?
It is card #565 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jimmy Piersall of the California Angels.
Why is #565 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #523-598 - the scarce end of the set. Forty-three of its 76 cards are short prints, so scarcity is stated for the series as a whole.
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.