1966 Topps #79 Joe Pepitone
About Joe Pepitone
Card #79 comes from the first series of 1966 Topps, and it is a fifth-year card. The Yankees around him collapsed to 70-89 and last place in the American League, but Pepitone had his best power season: 31 home runs, a career high, with 85 runs scored, 83 RBIs, and a .255 average in 152 games. He also took a second straight Gold Glove at first base while logging 51 games in center field, a hint of where the club was about to move him.
Joe Pepitone, born October 9, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, was a left-handed first baseman and center fielder who broke in with the New York Yankees in 1962 and played through 1973 with the Astros, Cubs, and Braves, closing out that final season with the Yakult Atoms in Japan. A three-time All-Star (1963-1965) and three-time Gold Glove winner at first base (1965, 1966, 1969), he hit .258 across twelve seasons with 219 home runs, 721 RBIs, and seven grand slams, and placed among the American League's top 10 in home runs three times and in total bases and RBIs twice each. Signed by the Yankees out of Brooklyn's Manual Training High School for a $25,000 bonus in August 1958, he took over first base from Moose Skowron in 1963 and was the first Yankees first baseman ever to win a Gold Glove. As gifted as he was undisciplined, Pepitone embraced New York nightlife and later wrote candidly about his career and personal struggles in the memoir Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud. He died March 13, 2023, at 82.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 404 | 3 | 20 | 149 | 107 | 44 | 29 | 52 | 0 |
| SGC | 33 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 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: #92 New York Yankees
More New York Yankees cards:
- #9 Clete Boyer
- #31 Jack Cullen
- #50 Mickey Mantle
- #68 Hal Reniff
- #117 Jake Gibbs
- #138 Roger Repoz
- #160 Whitey Ford
- #177 Hector Lopez
- #186 Ruben Amaro
- #205 Tom Tresh
- #224 American League 1965 Pitching Leaders
- #234 Yankees 1966 Rookie Stars
- #276 Jim Bouton
- #296 Johnny Keane
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #79 card?
It is card #79 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Pepitone of the New York Yankees.
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.