1966 Topps #217 National League 1965 Home Run Leaders - Willie Mays / Willie McCovey / Billy Williams
On this card: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams
About this card
Cards #215-226 are the twelve League Leaders, printed in the middle of the third series rather than at the front of the set - the one structural quirk of 1966. Each card lists the 1965 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
The story on this card
Card 217 in the 1966 Topps set is the National League Home Run Leaders board, recapping the 1965 season: Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants topped the league with 52 home runs, teammate Willie McCovey followed with 39, and Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs was third with 34. Part of print series 3, the card pictures all three sluggers together, with Mays and McCovey shown as Giants and Williams as a Cub. Mays's 52 homers came in a season in which he also drove in 112 runs and scored 118, earning him the NL Most Valuable Player award. McCovey's 39 backed him up in the same Giants lineup, while Williams, the Cubs' left fielder, rounded out the trio. The three-man format was Topps's standard way of saluting the prior year's statistical leaders.
Willie Mays was the Say Hey Kid, the five-tool center fielder of the New York and San Francisco Giants: Rookie of the Year in 1951, Most Valuable Player in 1954 and 1965, twelve straight Gold Gloves, 660 home runs, Hall of Fame in 1979. Willie McCovey, "Stretch," was the towering left-handed slugger who hit behind Willie Mays in San Francisco -- a three-time National League home run champion, the 1969 Most Valuable Player, and a Hall of Famer with 521 career home runs. Billy Williams was the quiet, metronomic third star of the Ernie Banks and Ron Santo Cubs, a sweet-swinging left fielder who won a batting title, a Rookie of the Year award, and once played 1,117 games in a row.
Sources: Wikipedia (Willie Mays) · Wikipedia (Willie McCovey) · Wikipedia (Billy Williams) · Wikipedia (Billy Williams) · SABR BioProject (Willie Mays) · SABR BioProject (Willie Mccovey) · SABR BioProject (Ce0e08ff) · Baseball Almanac (Willie Mays) · Baseball Almanac (Willie McCovey) · Baseball Almanac (Billy Williams) · Retrosheet · CBS Sports · Internet Archive
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,277 | 0 | 32 | 221 | 239 | 238 | 180 | 365 | 2 |
| SGC | 357 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 43 | 65 | 81 | 152 | 4 |
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 cards: #19 San Francisco Giants, #204 Chicago Cubs
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #217 card?
It is card #217 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Billy Williams. Cards #215-226 are the twelve League Leaders, printed in the middle of the third series rather than at the front of the set - the one structural quirk of 1966. Each card lists the 1965 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
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.