1933 Goudey #196 Roy Mahaffey
No team banner: this card comes from Goudey's late-1933 press sheets 8-10, which dropped the team-name banner from the front design.
About Roy Mahaffey
Lee Roy Mahaffey (1904-1969) grew up pitching for the Belton Mill team in South Carolina's Saluda Textile League before turning pro with the Columbia Comers in 1925. A right-hander built around a fast-breaking curveball, he reached the majors with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1926-1929) in a limited role, then starred for Portland of the Pacific Coast League in 1929 (21-25, 172 strikeouts in 358 innings) before Connie Mack purchased his contract in January 1930. With the Philadelphia Athletics (1930-1935) he became a workhorse in Mack's celebrated rotation alongside Lefty Grove, Rube Walberg, and George Earnshaw - a staff Bill James later called the best of the 1930s - going 15-4 (a league third-best .789 winning percentage) in 1931. Nicknamed "Workhorse" at Columbia for his willingness to take the ball, he reached the World Series with the pennant-winning A's in both 1930 and 1931, pitching one inning of Game Three in the 1931 Series. He was famous for handling Babe Ruth, never allowing him a home run in 14 career meetings and striking him out four straight times on June 7, 1930, days after Ruth had homered eight times in a week. Mahaffey closed his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1936, finishing 67-49 with a 5.01 ERA and 365 strikeouts over nine major-league seasons, then worked as a brick mason after baseball.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · SABR
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 388 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 22 | 47 | 82 | 218 | 5 |
| SGC | 149 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 107 | 5 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-03. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
More Philadelphia Athletics cards:
- #29 Jimmie Foxx
- #59 Bing Miller
- #61 Max Bishop
- #76 Mickey Cochrane
- #82 Dib Williams
- #145 Rube Walberg
- #154 Jimmie Foxx
- #183 Rube Walberg
- #220 Lefty Grove
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1933 Goudey Roy Mahaffey card?
It is card #196 of the 1933 Goudey (R319) Baseball set - the 240-card, 2-3/8 by 2-7/8 inch color-art set issued in 1933 with Big League Chewing Gum. It pictures Roy Mahaffey with the Philadelphia Athletics.
Why does this card have no team banner?
It comes from Goudey's late-1933 press sheets 8-10, which dropped the team-name banner from the front design - 72 cards in the set share the bannerless look.
Is the 1933 Goudey Roy Mahaffey #196 a rookie card?
By modern catalog convention, yes. 1933 Goudey is treated as the hobby's first major nationally distributed gum set, so nearly every card in it carries the rookie-card (RC) designation - a modern label applied retroactively, since many of these players had earlier tobacco, caramel, or strip cards.
How many cards are in the 1933 Goudey set?
240 numbered cards, though collectors usually count 241 collectible cards because #6 Jimmy Dykes exists in an error and a corrected version. Only 239 numbers were in 1933 packs - #106 (Nap Lajoie) was printed in 1934 and issued by mail.
Sources: Trading Card Database, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-05.