1966 Topps #402 Jim Hickman
About Jim Hickman
Hickman's fifth-series card #402 reports a 1965 season of .236 with 15 home runs and 40 RBI, the fewest runs he drove in across his four full Mets years. Its signature day came September 3 in St. Louis, where he hit three straight home runs off Cardinals left-hander Ray Sadecki in a 6-3 New York win, the first three-homer game by any Met. He went after a fourth and settled for a bad-hop single past third. That winter the Mets handed him a $2,500 raise, and Wes Westrum installed him in center field against right-handers and left-handers alike: "I think Mr. Hickman is ready to become a whale of a ballplayer."
James Lucius Hickman, an outfielder and first baseman known as "Gentleman Jim," was born May 10, 1937, in Henning, Tennessee, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1956 season. Six years in their farm system later, the expansion New York Mets claimed him with their 18th selection in the October 10, 1961, expansion draft, out of the $50,000 price tier. He spent five seasons in New York before trades took him to Los Angeles and then, in April 1968, to Chicago. At 33 he put together his career year for the 1970 Cubs: .315 with 32 home runs and 115 RBI, his only All-Star selection, and The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year award, the first won by a Cub. His 12th-inning single at Riverfront Stadium scored Pete Rose with the winning run in that All-Star Game. St. Louis waived him in July 1974, closing a 13-year career at .252 with 159 home runs and 560 RBI in 1,421 games. He spent two decades as a Cincinnati Reds minor-league hitting instructor, entered the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died June 25, 2016, in Jackson, Tennessee.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (3)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 150 | 2 | 14 | 72 | 43 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 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: #172 New York Mets
More New York Mets cards:
- #17 Johnny Stephenson
- #35 Ron Swoboda
- #51 Gordon Richardson
- #67 Mets 1966 Rookie Stars
- #87 Dan Napoleon
- #108 Bobby Klaus
- #124 Tug McGraw
- #154 Chuck Hiller
- #188 Al Luplow
- #191 Darrell Sutherland
- #212 Ed Kranepool
- #241 Dennis Ribant
- #262 Jack Hamilton
- #282 Johnny Lewis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #402 card?
It is card #402 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Hickman of the New York Mets.
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.