1966 Topps #291 Moe Drabowsky
About Moe Drabowsky
Baltimore took him from Kansas City in the Rule 5 draft on November 29, 1965, and card #291, a series-4 issue, is the first Topps card to show Drabowsky as an Oriole. The 1965 line behind it is thin: 14 games for the Athletics, five of them starts, a 1-5 record and a 4.42 ERA, with most of that summer spent starting for Triple-A Vancouver. Nothing on the back hints at what the Baltimore bullpen was about to make of him.
Myron Walter "Moe" Drabowsky, born July 21, 1935, in Ozanna, Poland, grew up in Connecticut. The Cubs signed him out of Trinity College in 1956 as a $75,000 bonus baby, and in 1957 he struck out 170 batters, tied for second in the National League. His elbow gave out in July 1958, and he became a 17-year journeyman - Cubs, Braves, Reds, Athletics, Orioles, Royals, Cardinals and White Sox - finishing 88-105 with a 3.71 ERA, 55 saves and 1,162 strikeouts. Baltimore remade him as a reliever, and in the 1966 World Series opener he allowed one hit over 6 2/3 innings and struck out 11 Dodgers, a single-game record for a relief pitcher, six in a row to match Hod Eller's 1919 mark. He won a second ring in 1970. Off the mound he was baseball's great prankster: snakes in teammates' lockers, bullpen phone pranks, a hotfoot for Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and died in 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 184 | 0 | 15 | 88 | 49 | 22 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 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: #348 Baltimore Orioles
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- #148 Bob Johnson
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #291 card?
It is card #291 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Moe Drabowsky of the Baltimore Orioles.
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.