1966 Topps #344 Steve Blass
About Steve Blass
Blass rejoined the Pirates for good in 1966, going 11-7 with a 3.87 ERA across 25 starts, the season that established him as a big-league regular after his year at Columbus. Card number 344, in the fourth series, pictures him with the Pittsburgh Pirates as that comeback season was underway.
Steve Blass pitched his entire ten-season career for the Pittsburgh Pirates, breaking in during 1964 and settling in as a rotation regular from 1966 on. He peaked between 1968 and 1972, topping out with an 18-6, 2.12 ERA season in 1968 and a 19-8 mark in 1972 that made him an All-Star and Cy Young runner-up. His signature moment came in the 1971 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, where he threw two complete-game victories, including the clincher in Game Seven, finishing runner-up for Series MVP behind Roberto Clemente. After 1972 he lost his control almost overnight, a decline so sudden and unexplained that it entered the baseball lexicon as its own syndrome. He pitched sparingly in 1973 and 1974 before retiring, then spent decades afterward as a Pirates broadcaster, later inducted into the Pittsburgh Pirates and Charleston, West Virginia baseball halls of fame. A right-hander who signed with Pittsburgh out of a Connecticut high school in 1960, he finished with a 103-76 record and a 3.63 ERA over 1,597.1 innings.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 242 | 0 | 22 | 138 | 56 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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: #404 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #15 Vern Law
- #33 Jim Pagliaroni
- #54 Jose Pagan
- #71 Frank Carpin
- #99 Buc Belters
- #112 Manny Mota
- #123 Pirates 1966 Rookie Stars
- #144 Don Schwall
- #182 Jerry Lynch
- #210 Bill Mazeroski
- #215 National League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #221 National League 1965 ERA Leaders
- #225 National League 1965 Strikeout Leaders
- #235 Don Cardwell
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #344 card?
It is card #344 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Steve Blass of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.