1966 Topps #455 Mickey Lolich
About Mickey Lolich
Lolich went 14-14 in 1966 and watched his ERA climb more than a run to 4.77. Asked about it afterward, he rejected the idea that his weight was the trouble, noting he had weighed 200 pounds while winning 18 games in 1964 and only two pounds more in 1966, and blamed lost concentration and blown leads instead. Card 226 is a third series League Leaders card he shares with Sam McDowell, Denny McLain and Sonny Siebert, McDowell being the one American League pitcher who had outstruck him the year before. Card 455, from the sixth series, pictures him alone with the Tigers.
Mickey Lolich was a left-handed pitcher who spent 13 of his 16 major league seasons with the Detroit Tigers, debuting in 1963 after growing up in Portland, Oregon, where a toddler accident with a tipped-over motorcycle broke his left collarbone and pushed him toward throwing left-handed. He was a flamethrowing wildman in the minors and only found his control in 1962 with the Portland Beavers, after refusing a demotion and flying home. From 1964 through 1974 he won at least 14 games every season and struck out 200 or more batters seven times. His best year was 1971, when he led the American League with 25 wins, 308 strikeouts, 29 complete games and 376 innings pitched and finished runner-up to Vida Blue for the Cy Young Award. A three-time All-Star, he is best remembered for the 1968 World Series, when he won three complete games against St. Louis, including a 4-1 Game 7 decision over Bob Gibson on two days of rest, and was named Series MVP. He retired in 1979 with 217 wins and 2,832 strikeouts, then the most by a left-hander in major league history. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame took him in 1982. He died in February 2026 at age 85.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 427 | 2 | 42 | 183 | 120 | 41 | 25 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 38 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 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
More Mickey Lolich in this set: #226 League Leaders
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 #455 card?
It is card #455 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mickey Lolich of the Detroit Tigers.
Why is #455 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series, #447-522 - noticeably tougher than the first five. Nothing in #447-522 is short-printed.
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.