1966 Topps #541 Gene Oliver
About Gene Oliver
The franchise moved south and Oliver's playing time went with it. A spring-training collision at home plate tore a ligament in his left knee, eleven men on the Atlanta roster had played first base, and he finished at .194 with eight home runs in 76 games. One afternoon rescued the summer: in the second game of a July 30 doubleheader he went 4-for-4 with three home runs, four runs and seven RBIs in a 15-2 rout of the Giants at Atlanta Stadium, the first three-homer game by an Atlanta Brave. Card 541 belongs to the scarce seventh series, a high number.
Eugene George Oliver (1935-2007) was born in Moline, Illinois, the fourth of five children of a Belgian father and a Polish mother. A three-sport star at Alleman Catholic High in Rock Island, he turned down a $60,000 bonus from the Detroit Tigers to take a football scholarship to Northwestern, then lost both when a shoulder separation ended his football career. He rehabilitated the arm, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in January 1956, and hit .333 with 39 home runs in Class D that first summer. Oliver debuted in St. Louis on June 6, 1959, led the Pacific Coast League with 36 homers for Portland in 1961, and became the Cardinals' regular catcher in 1962 before a June 1963 trade sent him to the Milwaukee Braves. His best year came in 1965: .270 with 21 home runs. Stints with the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs closed out a ten-year career that finished at .246 with 93 home runs and 320 RBIs in 786 games. A strong-armed catcher, first baseman and left fielder known for his wit, he instructed in the minors into the 1980s, was inducted into the Quad Cities Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died in Rock Island in 2007.
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 | 301 | 6 | 38 | 139 | 65 | 35 | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 25 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 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: #326 Atlanta Braves
More Atlanta Braves cards:
- #10 Tony Cloninger
- #28 Phil Niekro
- #49 Woody Woodward
- #84 Braves 1966 Rookie Stars
- #96 Felipe Alou
- #130 Joe Torre
- #153 Rico Carty
- #168 Dan Osinski
- #184 Denis Menke
- #200 Ed Mathews
- #215 National League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #223 National League 1965 Pitching Leaders
- #237 Billy O'Dell
- #252 Denver Lemaster
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #541 card?
It is card #541 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Oliver of the Atlanta Braves.
Why is #541 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #523-598 - the scarce end of the set. Forty-three of its 76 cards are short prints, so scarcity is stated for the series as a whole.
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.