1966 Topps #88 Fred Whitfield
About Fred Whitfield
A dive for a grounder in the last week of spring training left Whitfield with a bad elbow, and it pulled at his swing all season; his average fell to .241. The power did not go anywhere. He hit 27 home runs, a personal best and fifth-most in the American League, drove in 78, and set career highs with 137 games and 502 at-bats. Patience was never the point of him - the 27 walks he drew that year were the most of any season he played. Card #88 comes from the opening series of the set.
Fred Dwight Whitfield (1938-2013) was a left-handed first baseman from Vandiver, Alabama, who played nine big-league seasons (1962-1970) for the Cardinals, Indians, Reds and Expos. Pittsburgh signed him in 1956 and sent him home from camp; Baltimore signed him that fall and released him the next spring, his shoulder ruined by a sandlot pitching stint. He taught himself to flip the ball with his wrist, and a Cardinals scout signed him on the strength of his bat in 1958. Joe Schultz, one of his managers in that farm system, hung the tag Wingy on the throwing motion and it stuck. Whitfield reached St. Louis in 1962, went to Cleveland that December, and after two seasons of platooning owned the Indians' first-base job from May 1965 on. He hit 26 home runs in 1965 and 27 in 1966, and no staff suffered more than the Yankees, who gave up 23 of his 108 career homers. He batted .253 with 356 RBIs, then went home to Alabama, working as a shipping clerk for 23 years and playing bluegrass and gospel guitar.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 211 | 1 | 24 | 94 | 61 | 16 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 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: #303 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #16 Larry Brown
- #44 Indians 1966 Rookie Stars
- #65 Leon Wagner
- #109 Ralph Terry
- #128 Jim Landis
- #129 Jack Kralick
- #133 Don McMahon
- #150 Rocky Colavito
- #169 Duke Sims
- #197 Sonny Siebert
- #216 American League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #220 American League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #222 American League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #226 American League 1965 Strikeout Leaders
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #88 card?
It is card #88 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Fred Whitfield of the Cleveland Indians.
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.