1966 Topps #249 Bill Rigney
About this card
One of twenty manager cards in the 1966 Topps set: the Astros have two (#147 Lum Harris and #504 Grady Hatton) and the Cubs have none.
About Bill Rigney
New name, new address. The club opened 1966 as the California Angels in brand-new Anaheim Stadium, the third home ballpark Rigney had worked out of since 1961 after Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium. They improved by five wins on the year before but still finished two games under .500 at 80-82, sixth in the American League and 18 games behind the world champion Orioles. Card #249 is a third-series number from the middle of the checklist. It is the first Rigney Topps card to read California Angels, and he is alone on the front.
Bill Rigney was an infielder and manager born January 29, 1918, in Alameda, California. He played third base, shortstop and second base for the New York Giants from 1946 through 1953, made the National League All-Star team in 1948, and appeared in the 1951 World Series strictly as a pinch-hitter, batting four times in four games and singling once. After managing the Giants' top farm club, the Minneapolis Millers, to the 1955 American Association pennant, he took over the parent club in 1956, serving as its last manager in New York and its first in San Francisco before being fired on June 17, 1960. In 1961 he became the first manager in Los Angeles Angels history, and the expansion club's 86-76 third-place finish in 1962 earned him The Sporting News Manager of the Year award. He ran the Angels until May 27, 1969, then led the Minnesota Twins to the 1970 American League West title, the only postseason berth of his 18 seasons as a big-league manager, and closed his managing career back in the Giants' dugout in 1976 with an overall record of 1,239-1,321. He was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and died February 20, 2001, in Walnut Creek, California.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 231 | 4 | 44 | 117 | 48 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 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. 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
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- #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
- #263 Tom Egan
- #280 Bobby Knoop
- #299 Lou Burdette
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #249 card?
It is card #249 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Rigney of the California Angels. One of twenty manager cards in the 1966 Topps set: the Astros have two (#147 Lum Harris and #504 Grady Hatton) and the Cubs have none.
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.