1966 Topps #3 Sam Mele
About this card
One of twenty manager cards in the 1966 Topps set: the Astros have two (#147 Lum Harris and #504 Grady Hatton) and the Cubs have none.
About Sam Mele
Coming off the pennant, Minnesota won thirteen fewer games, finishing 89-73 and nine games behind the Baltimore Orioles in second place. Jim Kaat led the American League with twenty-five wins and Killebrew drove in 110, but the season is just as well remembered for a feud between coaches Billy Martin and pitching tutor Johnny Sain, which Martin later cast as Sain working to get Mele fired. How Mele handled it, or failed to, cost him standing with some of his players. Topps gave him card #3 for 1966, right at the front of the first series.
Sabath Anthony Mele, who picked up the nickname "Sam" from his initials, was born in 1922 in Astoria, in the New York City borough of Queens, the nephew of major leaguers Tony and Al Cuccinello. After starring at New York University in baseball and basketball and serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, he signed with the Boston Red Sox and made his major league debut in 1947, hitting .302 as a rookie right fielder. Over a ten-year playing career with the Red Sox, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Redlegs and Cleveland Indians, he batted .267 with 80 home runs and led the American League in doubles in 1951. After his playing days ended, Mele coached for the Senators and followed the franchise to Minnesota, taking over as manager of the Twins in June 1961. He managed the club into 1967, compiling a 524-436 record and guiding Minnesota to its first American League pennant. He later scouted for the Red Sox for decades until retiring in 1994, and died in 2017 at 95.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 183 | 2 | 17 | 71 | 45 | 22 | 12 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 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: #526 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #22 Joe Nossek
- #40 Jim Grant
- #56 Sandy Valdespino
- #73 Jerry Zimmerman
- #97 Jim Merritt
- #120 Harmon Killebrew
- #181 Al Worthington
- #190 Jimmie Hall
- #207 Frank Quilici
- #216 American League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #220 American League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #224 American League 1965 Pitching Leaders
- #240 Earl Battey
- #264 Twins 1966 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #3 card?
It is card #3 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sam Mele of the Minnesota Twins. One of twenty manager cards in the 1966 Topps set: the Astros have two (#147 Lum Harris and #504 Grady Hatton) and the Cubs have none.
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.