1966 Topps #589 Lou Klimchock
Hobby short-print lists for the 1966 high numbers vary by source, so this card's exact scarcity is reported differently in different guides.
About Lou Klimchock
Card 589 comes from the seventh print series of the 1966 set, a high number. It carries a New York Mets line, the result of a September 25, 1965 deal in which the Braves sent Klimchock and infielder Ernie Bowman to New York to complete an earlier trade for outfielder Billy Cowan. The 1965 season behind the card was a bleak one at the plate: he hit .077 in 34 games for Milwaukee, playing sparingly behind the regulars, before the Braves shipped him to Triple-A Atlanta. Published checklists disagree on which 1966 high numbers were printed in shorter supply, but the seventh series is where the set's tough cards live.
Louis Stephen Klimchock, a left-handed-hitting infielder from Hostetter, Pennsylvania, signed with the Kansas City Athletics in 1957 out of Latrobe High School, which fielded no baseball team; he played American Legion ball instead and was signed by scout Bruno Betzel. He tore up the Class C Pioneer League in 1958 at .389, then made history that September in Chicago, homering off a fellow teenager for his first major league hit. Over parts of 12 big league seasons between 1958 and 1970 he played mostly second and third base for the Athletics, Braves, Senators, Mets and Indians, but trades and long minor league stretches kept breaking up his career; his biggest year in the minors was a Pacific Coast League MVP season at Denver in 1964. His best major league season came late, in 1969 with Cleveland, when he hit .287 over a career-high 90 games. He finished at .232 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI in 318 games. He managed winter ball in Puerto Rico and two seasons at Reno, worked for Coors and then Coca-Cola, and has spent decades raising money for baseball alumni charities in Arizona.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 381 | 0 | 32 | 155 | 109 | 59 | 22 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 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
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- #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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #589 card?
It is card #589 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Lou Klimchock of the New York Mets.
Why is #589 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.