1966 Topps #225 National League 1965 Strikeout Leaders - Sandy Koufax / Bob Veale / Bob Gibson
On this card: Sandy Koufax, Bob Veale, Bob Gibson
The National League strikeout leaders card, picturing Sandy Koufax, Bob Veale and Bob Gibson.
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 #225 in the 1966 Topps League Leaders subset ranks the National League's strikeout men of 1965. Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers sits on top with 382, a major league record at the time, worked out of 335.2 innings in a season that also brought him the pitching Triple Crown, a 26-8 record, a 2.04 ERA and his second Cy Young Award. Bob Veale of the Pittsburgh Pirates follows with 276, a distant second and still the most by a Pirate in the modern era, on a 17-12 mark and a 2.84 ERA. Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals closes the board with 270, going 20-12 with a 3.07 ERA and landing his first twenty-win season on the final day of a year in which the Cardinals were long out of the race. All three were 1965 All-Stars.
Sandy Koufax was the Dodgers' left-hander nicknamed 'the Left Arm of God,' whose five-year run of dominance from 1962 to 1966 brought three unanimous Cy Young Awards and four no-hitters, including a perfect game, before an arthritic elbow forced his retirement at 30. Bob Veale was a towering, hard-throwing left-hander who terrorized National League hitters for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960s, leading the league in strikeouts in 1964, making two All-Star teams, and helping Pittsburgh win the 1971 World Series. Bob Gibson pitched all seventeen of his seasons for the Cardinals, a two-time Cy Young winner and two-time World Series Most Valuable Player whose 1.12 earned run average in 1968 still measures pitching dominance.
Sources: Wikipedia (Sandy Koufax) · Wikipedia (Bob Veale) · Wikipedia (Bob Gibson) · SABR BioProject (Sandy Koufax) · SABR BioProject (Bob Veale) · SABR BioProject (Bob Gibson) · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac (Bob Veale) · Baseball Almanac (Bob Gibson)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,143 | 0 | 37 | 238 | 218 | 203 | 191 | 253 | 3 |
| SGC | 287 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 34 | 66 | 70 | 102 | 2 |
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: #238 Los Angeles Dodgers, #404 Pittsburgh Pirates, #379 St. Louis Cardinals
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #225 card?
It is card #225 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sandy Koufax, Bob Veale and Bob Gibson. 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.