1966 Topps #26 Ray Sadecki
About Ray Sadecki
Card #26, from the set's first series, shows Sadecki in a Cardinals uniform, and he barely stayed in one. He struck out the side in his first outing of the year and stood 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA after two relief turns and two starts, then lost to the Mets on May 4 and was traded to San Francisco for Orlando Cepeda four days later, ending the first of his two stints in St. Louis. The Giants half of the season went badly, 3-7 with a 5.40 ERA, leaving him 5-8 overall. The one bright spot was his bat: he hit .341 across both clubs, the best batting mark of his career.
Ray Sadecki, a left-handed pitcher born December 26, 1940, in Kansas City, Kansas, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a bonus baby out of Bishop Ward High School in 1958, still only seventeen, and reached the majors at nineteen in 1960. Over an 18-year career he pitched for the Cardinals, the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets, with later stops for the Braves, Royals and Brewers, going 135-131 with a 3.78 ERA, 20 shutouts and 1,614 strikeouts in 563 games, 328 of them starts. Known for his palmball, he was the left-handed complement to Bob Gibson in St. Louis; his signature season came in 1964, when he won 20 games and beat Whitey Ford in Game One of the World Series as the Cardinals took the pennant and the title. He was traded to San Francisco in May 1966 in the deal that sent Orlando Cepeda to St. Louis, and posted his best full-season ERA, 2.78, for the Giants in 1967. Sadecki was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2010. He died November 17, 2014, in Mesa, Arizona.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 211 | 1 | 26 | 87 | 57 | 22 | 11 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #379 St. Louis Cardinals
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- #103 Dick Groat
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- #137 Pat Corrales
- #142 Don Dennis
- #163 Tito Francona
- #179 Cardinals 1966 Rookie Stars
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- #275 Tim McCarver
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #26 card?
It is card #26 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ray Sadecki of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.