1966 Topps #425 Bob Veale
About Bob Veale
The 1965 season, Veale's first All-Star year, fills both of his 1966 cards. #225 is the League Leaders card that places him second in strikeouts behind Sandy Koufax's record 382, with Bob Gibson third, and it is one of the set's marquee pieces. #425, from the fifth series, is his own: 276 strikeouts, still the modern-era Pirates record, with a 17-12 mark and a 2.84 ERA across 266 innings.
Robert Andrew Veale was a 6-foot-6, bespectacled left-hander who threw as hard as anyone in the National League and anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates' staff from 1962 through 1972. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 28, 1935, he worked the concession stand at Rickwood Field as a boy and pitched batting practice for the Birmingham Black Barons; his father had pitched for the Homestead Grays. Veale went to Benedictine College on an athletic scholarship and signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur free agent in 1958. A league-leading 208 strikeouts for Columbus of the International League in 1961 earned him the call, and he debuted on April 16, 1962. Wild as well as overpowering, he led the National League in walks four times, led it with 250 strikeouts in 1964, and set a career high of 276 in 1965 that is still the Pirates' modern-era record. A two-time All-Star, he finished 120-95 with a 3.07 ERA and 1,703 strikeouts, and won a ring with the 1971 world champion Pirates. Released by Pittsburgh in May 1972, he signed with Boston that September and pitched there through 1974, then taught pitching in the Atlanta and New York farm systems. He entered the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and died in Birmingham on January 3, 2025, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 168 | 1 | 15 | 81 | 43 | 17 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 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. 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
More Bob Veale in this set: #225 League Leaders
Team card: #404 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #15 Vern Law
- #33 Jim Pagliaroni
- #54 Jose Pagan
- #71 Frank Carpin
- #99 Buc Belters
- #112 Manny Mota
- #123 Pirates 1966 Rookie Stars
- #144 Don Schwall
- #182 Jerry Lynch
- #210 Bill Mazeroski
- #215 National League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #221 National League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #225 National League 1965 Strikeout Leaders
- #235 Don Cardwell
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #425 card?
It is card #425 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Veale of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.