1966 Topps #246 Ed Bailey
About Ed Bailey
The card shows Bailey as a Cub, the club he joined in midseason 1965 and caught 54 games for down the stretch. His best day came on July 22 against Philadelphia: a grand slam, a three-run homer and a run-scoring single for eight RBI, tying the Chicago franchise record for runs batted in in a game. The arm was gone, though, cortisone shots for the elbow and only eight of 35 base stealers thrown out as a Cub. Chicago sold him to the California Angels on January 15, 1966, and the Angels released him in May after five games, closing a fourteen-year career. Number 246 is a third-series card.
Lonas Edgar Bailey Jr., born April 15, 1931, in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, was a left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing catcher who gave up a University of Tennessee basketball scholarship to sign with Cincinnati. Two years of Army ball and a September 1953 debut later, he won the starting job in 1956 and turned in his career year: .300 with 28 home runs, 75 RBI and the league lead in baserunners caught stealing. He stayed Cincinnati's regular catcher until an April 1961 trade sent him to the San Francisco Giants, and he later caught for the Milwaukee Braves, the Giants again and the Chicago Cubs before the California Angels released him in May 1966. He made the National League All-Star squad in five seasons, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1963, and in the stretch when each summer held two All-Star Games he played in six of them. In 1957 he led National League catchers by throwing out 46 percent of base stealers. Across fourteen seasons he batted .256 with 155 home runs and 540 RBI. Teammates called him 'Gar,' short for Edgar, though teammate Jim Brosnan suspected it stood for garrulous. He went home to Knoxville after baseball and served twelve years on the city council.
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 | 224 | 4 | 28 | 127 | 43 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #204 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #2 Ted Abernathy
- #24 Don Kessinger
- #43 Don Landrum
- #63 Jim Stewart
- #82 Bob Hendley
- #110 Ernie Banks
- #139 Cubs 1966 Rookie Stars
- #146 George Altman
- #166 Chris Krug
- #185 Bob Buhl
- #217 National League 1965 Home Run Leaders
- #232 Glenn Beckert
- #278 Calvin Koonce
- #290 Ron Santo
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #246 card?
It is card #246 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Bailey of the Chicago Cubs.
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.