1966 Topps #280 Bobby Knoop
About Bobby Knoop
1966 Topps #280, a series-three card, arrives after the best offensive year of Knoop's career: career highs of 17 home runs, 72 RBIs, 54 runs and 11 triples. That same season he led all AL second basemen in fielding percentage and started at second base for the American League in the All-Star Game, the first of three straight Gold Gloves he would win at the position.
Bobby Knoop was a sure-handed second baseman who anchored the Angels infield for the better part of a decade. Signed by the Milwaukee Braves organization in 1956, he spent eight years and ten minor league stops before the Los Angeles Angels took him in the December 1963 Rule 5 draft. He became the club's regular second baseman in 1964 and held the job into 1969, teaming with shortstop Jim Fregosi to give the Angels one of the American League's steadiest double-play combinations. Knoop's game was built on defense: he led AL second basemen in fielding percentage in 1966 and won three straight Gold Gloves from 1966 through 1968. He started at second base for the American League in the 1966 All-Star Game, the same year he posted career highs of 17 home runs, 72 RBIs and 54 runs. After Anaheim he played for the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals, closing out a nine-year career in 1972 with a .236 average, 56 home runs and 331 RBIs across 1,153 games. He went on to a long second act as a coach and scout across several organizations, and was inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2013.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 240 | 5 | 50 | 129 | 40 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #280 card?
It is card #280 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bobby Knoop of the California Angels.
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.