1966 Topps #597 John Sullivan
About John Sullivan
Card #597 reflects Sullivan's time with the Detroit Tigers, for whom he was a reserve catcher in the 1965 season. It is a high number from the seventh print series, part of the scarce tail end of the 1966 checklist. It is not Sullivan's rookie card, which came a year earlier.
John Sullivan was a catcher from Somerville, New Jersey who signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1959 after graduating from Bernards High School. A left-handed batter who threw right-handed, he stood 6 feet tall and weighed 195 pounds. Sullivan debuted with Detroit in the closing days of the 1963 season and spent five major league seasons behind the plate, with the Tigers (1963-65), New York Mets (1967) and Philadelphia Phillies (1968), finishing with 116 games played, 59 hits and a .228 average. His only extended big-league stretches came as a reserve catcher for the 1965 Tigers and the 1967 Mets, the latter his lone full season in the majors. He also logged eight seasons at the Triple-A level, including time with the Rochester Red Wings near his wife's family in the Finger Lakes region. After his playing days, Sullivan managed in the Kansas City Royals' farm system and later coached in the majors for fifteen years, including on the Toronto Blue Jays' back-to-back World Series champion teams in 1992 and 1993.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 322 | 4 | 33 | 132 | 81 | 42 | 19 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 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: #583 Detroit Tigers
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #20 Willie Horton
- #38 Ron Nischwitz
- #58 Dave Wickersham
- #81 Ray Oyler
- #98 Don Demeter
- #113 Hank Aguirre
- #145 Bill Freehan
- #161 Jerry Lumpe
- #187 Chuck Dressen
- #198 Mickey Stanley
- #209 Tigers 1966 Rookie Stars
- #218 American League 1965 Home Run Leaders
- #220 American League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #226 American League 1965 Strikeout Leaders
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #597 card?
It is card #597 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing John Sullivan of the Detroit Tigers.
Why is #597 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #523-598 - the scarce end of the set. Forty-three of its 76 cards are short prints, so scarcity is stated for the series as a whole.
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.