1966 Topps #406 Joe Jay
About Joe Jay
Card 406 comes late, in the fifth series, and it is the last Topps card Jay would get. It reports a 1965 in which he went 9-8 with a 4.22 ERA and made 24 starts among 37 appearances, far more bullpen work than either 21-win season asked of him. Elbow trouble sidelined him from late June to mid-July, and although he stood 8-2 on July 23 he won only once more. He opened 1966 at 6-2 through the first of June, then Cincinnati dealt him to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Hank Fischer; he went 0-4 in Atlanta and was released after the season.
Joseph Richard Jay, born August 15, 1935, in Middletown, Connecticut, was a switch-hitting right-hander who pitched 13 seasons in the majors between 1953 and 1966 for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee signed him out of high school in 1953 for a $40,000 bonus, making him one of the original bonus babies and the first Little League alumnus to reach the big leagues; the bonus rule of the day pinned him to a major league roster before he had learned his trade in the minors. Seven uneven Braves seasons followed. After the 1960 campaign Milwaukee sent Jay and Juan Pizarro to Cincinnati for shortstop Roy McMillan, and the move remade him: 21 wins in 1961, 21 more in 1962, and a pennant for the Reds. He finished 99-91 with a 3.77 ERA and 999 strikeouts over 1,546 1/3 innings. Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame, a team honor, in July 2008. He died September 27, 2024, in Lutz, Florida, at 89.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 165 | 3 | 22 | 68 | 38 | 24 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 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: #59 Cincinnati Reds
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #12 John Tsitouris
- #30 Pete Rose
- #72 Tony Perez
- #89 Ted Davidson
- #119 Art Shamsky
- #140 Jim Maloney
- #159 Chico Ruiz
- #180 Vada Pinson
- #196 Don Pavletich
- #214 Tommy Harper
- #219 National League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #233 Dom Zanni
- #250 Sam Ellis
- #269 Don Heffner
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #406 card?
It is card #406 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Jay of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.