1966 Topps #240 Earl Battey
About Earl Battey
The pennant season: Battey hit .297 with 6 home runs and 60 RBI, threw out 26 of the 54 runners who tried to steal on him, and started the All-Star Game at Metropolitan Stadium, his own ballpark, batting eighth. He drove his throat into a dugout railing in Game Three of the World Series chasing a Willie Davis foul pop and left that game, but he started all seven against Sandy Koufax's Dodgers, striking out five times after fanning only 23 times all season. Card #240 is his series-3 base issue.
Earl Battey was born January 5, 1935, in Los Angeles and signed with the Chicago White Sox out of Jordan High School in Watts. He reached the majors in 1955 and spent five years behind Sherm Lollar before an April 1960 trade sent him and Don Mincher to the Washington Senators for Roy Sievers. Battey caught for that franchise, renamed the Minnesota Twins in 1961, through 1967: three straight Gold Gloves from 1960 to 1962, All-Star selections in 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966, and a major league record for catchers with 15 baserunners picked off in 1962. He started all seven games of the 1965 World Series loss to Los Angeles and retired with 1,141 games, 969 hits, 104 home runs, 449 RBI and a .270 average. He worked a dozen years as a New York recreation specialist, earned an education degree from Bethune-Cookman University, and taught and coached in Ocala, Florida, where he died of cancer in 2003. The Twins elected him to their hall of fame in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 268 | 0 | 23 | 160 | 56 | 18 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 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: #526 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #3 Sam Mele
- #22 Joe Nossek
- #40 Jim Grant
- #56 Sandy Valdespino
- #73 Jerry Zimmerman
- #97 Jim Merritt
- #120 Harmon Killebrew
- #181 Al Worthington
- #190 Jimmie Hall
- #207 Frank Quilici
- #216 American League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #220 American League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #224 American League 1965 Pitching Leaders
- #264 Twins 1966 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #240 card?
It is card #240 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Earl Battey of the Minnesota Twins.
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.