1966 Topps #581 Tony Martinez
About Tony Martinez
1966 Topps #581 puts Martinez with the Cleveland Indians in the seventh and final print series, a high number. The timing is the story here. Martinez got into 17 games for the Indians in 1966 and took only 17 at-bats, going 5-for-17 for a .294 average, the best average of his major league career. He made his last major league appearance on June 14, and two days later Cleveland sold him to the St. Louis Cardinals. By the time this final-series high number reached packs, the player on the front was no longer an Indian, and he never returned to the majors.
Gabriel Antonio Martinez Diaz, born March 18, 1940 in Perico, Matanzas Province, Cuba, signed with the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent in 1960. He started at Class C and climbed fast: by his third professional season he was an All-Star shortstop in Triple-A, and he took the 1962 International League Most Valuable Player award at age 22 with the pennant-winning Jacksonville Suns, Cleveland's farm club that went a league-best 94-60. That earned him the Indians' first-string shortstop job out of spring training in 1963, and he started the club's first 35 games before the bat gave out. Cleveland optioned him to Jacksonville on May 26 and traded with Kansas City for Dick Howser to replace him. The rest of his career was spent in the high minors apart from sporadic call-ups from 1964 through 1966. He finished at .171 with 30 hits, five doubles, no home runs and 10 runs batted in over 73 games, all for Cleveland. The Indians sold him to St. Louis on June 16, 1966, and the Cardinals sent him to the New York Mets with Jerry Buchek and Art Mahaffey the following April. He died in Miami on August 24, 1991, at 51.
Sources: Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 372 | 11 | 75 | 158 | 73 | 28 | 22 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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: #303 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #16 Larry Brown
- #44 Indians 1966 Rookie Stars
- #65 Leon Wagner
- #88 Fred Whitfield
- #109 Ralph Terry
- #128 Jim Landis
- #129 Jack Kralick
- #133 Don McMahon
- #150 Rocky Colavito
- #169 Duke Sims
- #197 Sonny Siebert
- #216 American League 1965 Batting Leaders
- #220 American League 1965 RBI Leaders
- #222 American League 1965 ERA Leaders
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1966 Topps #581 card?
It is card #581 of the 598-card 1966 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony Martinez of the Cleveland Indians.
Why is #581 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #523-598 - the scarce end of the set. Forty-three of its 76 cards are short prints, so scarcity is stated for the series as a whole.
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.