1964 Topps #366 Nelson Mathews
About Nelson Mathews
Card 366 lands in the fourth series of a 587-card set - it is Mathews' first Topps card on his own after the shared 1963 panel. The Cubs had traded him to Kansas City for left-handed pitcher Fred Norman, and the Athletics handed him the center field job: he started 154 games there, appeared in 157 in all, and hit 14 home runs. The strikeouts came with them, 143 of them, the most by any American League batter that season, and he batted .239 for a club that lost 105 games and finished last.
Nelson Elmer Mathews was born July 21, 1941 in Columbia, Illinois, graduated from his hometown high school, and signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1959. A right-handed hitter and thrower who stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 195 pounds, he reached the majors at 19, debuting on September 9, 1960 at Forbes Field: pinch-hitting for pitcher Mel Wright in the ninth, he singled off Vinegar Bend Mizell, took third on a Richie Ashburn double and scored on a Don Zimmer single. He spent most of 1961 and 1962 in the minors, batting .368 and making the Class B Northwest League All-Star team in 1962. He then spent the full 1963 and 1964 seasons in the majors, moving from the Cubs to the Kansas City Athletics between them. His playing time shrank in 1965, and he finished out his career in the minors through 1967. In 306 major league games he collected 218 hits, including 39 doubles, 14 triples and 22 home runs, batting .223 with 98 runs batted in. His son, T.J. Mathews, pitched eight seasons in the majors as a reliever from 1995 to 2002.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · The Baseball Cube · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 244 | 3 | 38 | 124 | 49 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 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: #151 K. C. Athletics
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- #42 Moe Drabowsky
- #75 Wayne Causey
- #108 John Wyatt
- #124 Orlando Pena
- #174 Doc Edwards
- #196 Jim Gentile
- #212 Pete Lovrich
- #229 Charley Lau
- #244 Tony La Russa
- #276 Jose Tartabull
- #302 Dan Pfister
- #320 Rocky Colavito
- #334 Lew Krausse
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #366 card?
It is card #366 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Nelson Mathews of the Kansas City Athletics.
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.