1966 Topps #454 Jerry Buchek
About Jerry Buchek
Number 454 sits in the 1966 Topps set's sixth series. It marks his busiest season in a Cardinals uniform: 100 games, a .236 average, four home runs and 25 runs batted in, with Dal Maxvill installed at shortstop where Dick Groat had been. It also holds a piece of St. Louis history. The Cardinals closed the old downtown ballpark on May 8, 1966 and opened Busch Memorial Stadium four days later with a 12-inning win over Atlanta, and Buchek scored the first run ever counted in the new park.
Gerald Peter Buchek, born May 9, 1942 in St. Louis, was a right-handed-hitting infielder who signed with his hometown Cardinals out of McKinley High School for a bonus big enough to start him in the high minors at 18. He debuted on June 30, 1961 but did not hold a major league job until 1964, and across all or parts of seven seasons he was a versatile reserve who filled in at shortstop, second base and third. He was part of the Cardinals' 1964 World Series championship team, singling off Jim Bouton in his only Series at-bat. Traded to the New York Mets before the 1967 season, he finally got everyday work and set personal bests in games, hits, home runs and runs batted in. He finished with a .220 average, 259 hits, 22 home runs and 108 runs batted in over 421 games, spent one more year in Triple-A, and walked away at 27. He worked as a union meatcutter in St. Louis and later sold cars, and he died on January 2, 2019 in Springfield, Missouri, at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 291 | 4 | 45 | 161 | 44 | 19 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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: #379 St. Louis Cardinals
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #7 Tracy Stallard
- #26 Ray Sadecki
- #60 Curt Flood
- #76 Red Schoendienst
- #91 Bob Uecker
- #103 Dick Groat
- #125 Lou Brock
- #137 Pat Corrales
- #142 Don Dennis
- #163 Tito Francona
- #179 Cardinals 1966 Rookie Stars
- #206 Alvin Jackson
- #225 National League 1965 Strikeout Leaders
- #243 Nelson Briles
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #454 card?
It is card #454 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jerry Buchek of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Why is #454 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.