1966 Topps #121 Ray Herbert
About Ray Herbert
His last season was bullpen work only: 23 appearances, 50 1/3 innings, a 4.29 ERA and a 2-5 record. He made his final major-league appearance on September 17, 1966, and Philadelphia released him at 36, ending a professional career that had opened in 1949 with the Toledo Mud Hens, where he lost 17 games as a 19-year-old in his first year in organized ball. Card #121 comes from the second print series.
Raymond Ernest Herbert was born in Detroit on December 15, 1929, and signed with his hometown Tigers for $4,000 out of Detroit Catholic Central High School, reaching the majors with a complete-game loss at Philadelphia on August 27, 1950. Army service during the Korean War cost him most of 1951 and all of 1952, and for a decade his sinking fastball outran his command: mop-up innings and spot starts for second-division Tigers and Kansas City Athletics clubs, plus two full seasons back in Triple-A in 1956 and 1957. A trade to the Chicago White Sox in June 1961 changed all of it. Pitching coach Ray Berres rebuilt a windup that had been pulling his head and body forward and boring the ball in on right-handed hitters, and Herbert went 48-32 in three and a half seasons in Chicago, including a 20-9 All-Star year in 1962 and a league-leading seven shutouts in 1963. Dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies in December 1964, he closed a fourteen-season, 104-107 career in 1966, then threw batting practice for the Tigers from 1967 to 1992.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 164 | 1 | 25 | 75 | 33 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #121 card?
It is card #121 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ray Herbert of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.