1966 Topps #319 Gene Freese
About Gene Freese
Card #319, series 4 of the 1966 Topps set, pictures Freese with the Chicago White Sox, the club he opened what proved to be his last major league season with. He batted .208 over 48 games and 106 at-bats and started 24 of his 34 appearances at third base before Chicago traded him to the Houston Astros for Jim Mahoney and cash on July 20. Houston got 21 games and three hits in 33 at-bats out of him; his final big league game came on September 3, 1966, closing a twelve-year career at 32.
Eugene Lewis Freese, a right-handed third baseman born in Wheeling, West Virginia, played twelve major league seasons between 1955 and 1966 for the Pirates, Cardinals, Phillies, White Sox, Reds and Astros, traded or sold seven times along the way. A three-sport athlete at West Liberty State College, he signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur free agent in March 1953 and reached the majors in 1955 alongside his older brother George, taking the Pirates' rookie-of-the-year award from the Pittsburgh baseball writers over Roberto Clemente. His best work came from 1959 through 1961, culminating in career highs across the board for the pennant-winning 1961 Reds. A spring-training ankle fracture in 1962 cost him that form for good; he never again played 100 games in a season, and he retired after the 1968 minor league campaign. He finished at .254 with 877 hits, 115 home runs and 432 RBIs in 1,115 games, then made New Orleans home, running the Basin Lounge and entering the New Orleans Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 153 | 0 | 16 | 74 | 46 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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: #426 Chicago White Sox
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- #8 Floyd Robinson
- #25 Pete Ward
- #47 J.C. Martin
- #66 Al Weis
- #85 Eddie Fisher
- #111 Gary Peters
- #127 Ken Berry
- #141 Tom McCraw
- #164 White Sox 1966 Rookie Stars
- #199 ChiSox Clubbers
- #222 American League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #245 John Buzhardt
- #261 Ron Hansen
- #281 Bruce Howard
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #319 card?
It is card #319 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Freese of the Chicago White Sox.
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.