1964 Topps #266 Gene Freese
About Gene Freese
Card #266, series 3 of the 1964 Topps set, has Freese back in a Pirates uniform for a second tour with the club, Cincinnati having sold his contract to Pittsburgh in November 1963. It became his busiest season after the ankle injury without ever amounting to a full-time job: 99 games, 72 of them at third base, 289 at-bats, a .225 average, nine home runs and 40 RBIs. Those 99 games were the most he would play in any season for the rest of his career.
Eugene Lewis Freese, a right-handed third baseman born in Wheeling, West Virginia, played twelve major league seasons between 1955 and 1966 for the Pirates, Cardinals, Phillies, White Sox, Reds and Astros, traded or sold seven times along the way. A three-sport athlete at West Liberty State College, he signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur free agent in March 1953 and reached the majors in 1955 alongside his older brother George, taking the Pirates' rookie-of-the-year award from the Pittsburgh baseball writers over Roberto Clemente. His best work came from 1959 through 1961, culminating in career highs across the board for the pennant-winning 1961 Reds. A spring-training ankle fracture in 1962 cost him that form for good; he never again played 100 games in a season, and he retired after the 1968 minor league campaign. He finished at .254 with 877 hits, 115 home runs and 432 RBIs in 1,115 games, then made New Orleans home, running the Basin Lounge and entering the New Orleans Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 306 | 3 | 40 | 159 | 71 | 21 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #373 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #1 1963 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #7 1963 National League Batting Leaders
- #20 Bob Friend
- #37 Smoky Burgess
- #62 Ted Savage
- #74 Pirates 1964 Rookie Stars
- #91 Bob Bailey
- #117 Earl Francis
- #141 Danny Murtaugh
- #163 Donn Clendenon
- #193 Jerry Lynch
- #209 Bob Allen
- #224 Tommie Sisk
- #246 Manny Mota
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #266 card?
It is card #266 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Freese of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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.