1964 Topps #78 Merritt Ranew
About Merritt Ranew
Card #78 is a first series number. It shows him with the Chicago Cubs after the best year of his career: working as a pinch hitter and third string catcher in 1963, he batted .338 in 78 games with three home runs and 15 runs batted in, and went 17 for 41 as a pinch hitter. The 1964 season undid all of it. He was hitting .091, three hits in 16 games, when Chicago traded him back to the Milwaukee Braves on June 3, and after two hits in nine games with Milwaukee he was sent down to Triple-A Toronto.
Merritt Thomas Ranew, born May 10, 1938 in Albany, Georgia, was a left-handed hitting catcher who spent 15 seasons in professional baseball, five of them in the major leagues. Out of Lee County High School in Leesburg, he signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and climbed their farm system for five years, batting .347 at Triple-A Louisville in 1961 for his third straight season over .300. On October 10, 1961 Houston took him 17th overall, its ninth selection, in the expansion draft that stocked the Colt .45s. He caught for Houston in 1962, was traded to the Chicago Cubs the next spring, and later passed through the Braves, Angels and Seattle organizations before a last big league turn with the 1969 Seattle Pilots. A bat to the head in a 1966 minor league brawl nearly killed him and cost him a full season. In 269 games he batted .247 with 147 hits, 20 doubles, nine triples, eight home runs and 54 runs batted in. He retired in 1971, then became a well known quarter horse and cutting horse trainer and professional rider in Georgia, Florida and Texas, and co-owned a nightclub in Albany. He died in Valdosta, Georgia on October 18, 2011.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 211 | 0 | 19 | 91 | 60 | 27 | 9 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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: #237 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #1 1963 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #29 Lou Brock
- #55 Ernie Banks
- #96 Bob Buhl
- #111 Don Elston
- #131 Steve Boros
- #175 Billy Williams
- #192 Cubs 1964 Rookie Stars
- #220 Dick Ellsworth
- #252 Ken Aspromonte
- #269 Ellis Burton
- #286 Don Landrum
- #309 Paul Toth
- #336 Andre Rodgers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #78 card?
It is card #78 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Merritt Ranew of the Chicago Cubs.
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.