1966 Topps #510 Hoyt Wilhelm
About Hoyt Wilhelm
Card #510 falls in the sixth series, a step up in scarcity from the common runs. The 1965 season behind it was Wilhelm at his most durable: 66 games, all in relief, a 1.81 ERA, 21 saves, 144 innings and 106 strikeouts for a White Sox club that won 95 games and finished second. Catching him remained its own problem. Chicago's J.C. Martin was charged with 33 passed balls that year, a modern single-season record, and when baseball outlawed mitts larger than 38 inches the Sox answered with a hinged-thumb model built for the knuckleball.
Hoyt Wilhelm rode a knuckleball he taught himself as a North Carolina teenager to one of baseball's strangest careers. Born in Huntersville on July 26, 1922 -- a year earlier than the date his cards carried -- he was one of eleven children of tenant farmers. He served in the Army, was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge and earned a Purple Heart, then pitched the rest of his life with a fragment lodged in his back; his rise to staff sergeant left him the nickname "Old Sarge." He did not reach the majors until age 29, debuting for the New York Giants in April 1952, and homered in his first at-bat, the only home run he ever hit. Working entirely in relief, he won the National League ERA title as a rookie at 2.43, going 15-3, then took a second crown as a Baltimore starter in 1959 at 2.19 and no-hit the Yankees 1-0 on September 20, 1958. He pitched for nine franchises, tying Satchel Paige and Goose Gossage for the most by a Hall of Fame pitcher, and was the first to reach 200 saves and 1,000 games. Twenty-one seasons left him 143-122 with a 2.52 ERA, 228 saves and a record 124 relief wins; in 1985 he became the first reliever elected to Cooperstown.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 523 | 4 | 61 | 224 | 100 | 53 | 43 | 38 | 0 |
| SGC | 78 | 0 | 11 | 18 | 19 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 1 |
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
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #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 #510 card?
It is card #510 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hoyt Wilhelm of the Chicago White Sox.
Why is #510 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series, #447-522 - noticeably tougher than the first five. Nothing in #447-522 is short-printed.
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.