1966 Topps #178 Bob Tillman
About Bob Tillman
By the time number 178 turned up in the second series, Tillman was the backup. Herman handed the everyday job to Mike Ryan, a stronger defensive catcher, and Tillman got into 78 games, catching in 72 of them, with 204 at-bats and a .230 average, three home runs, and 24 RBIs. He was still sound behind the plate, posting a .990 fielding mark. Boston finished a half-game ahead of the last-place Yankees in the ten-team American League, and Herman did not survive the year; Pete Runnels took over as interim manager for the final 16 games.
John Robert Tillman, a 6-foot-4 right-handed catcher born in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 24, 1937, caught nine big-league seasons for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves between 1962 and 1970. Signed out of Middle Tennessee State by Red Sox scout George Digby in January 1958, he climbed through Raleigh, Allentown, Minneapolis, and Seattle before sticking in Boston in 1962. He was the Red Sox Opening Day catcher three years running from 1963, and his 17 home runs in 1964 set a club single-season record for a catcher that stood until Carlton Fisk hit 22 in 1972. Tillman worked behind the plate for two no-hitters, Earl Wilson's in 1962 and Dave Morehead's in 1965. Sold to the Yankees in August 1967, he went to Atlanta that December in the trade that sent Bobby Cox to New York, backing up Joe Torre and then Bob Didier and reaching the postseason when the Braves won the first National League West title in 1969. He retired after 775 games with a .232 average, 79 home runs, and 282 RBIs. He died in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 2000.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 171 | 3 | 21 | 84 | 33 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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: #259 Boston Red Sox
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #6 Chuck Schilling
- #37 Billy Herman
- #53 Bob Duliba
- #70 Carl Yastrzemski
- #93 Jim Lonborg
- #114 Jim Gosger
- #135 Dave Morehead
- #203 Jose Santiago
- #216 American League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #218 American League 1965 Home Run Leaders
- #227 Russ Nixon
- #277 George Thomas
- #298 Rico Petrocelli
- #317 Dalton Jones
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #178 card?
It is card #178 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Tillman of the Boston Red Sox.
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.