1967 Topps #162 Billy O'Dell
About Billy O'Dell
Traded from Atlanta to Pittsburgh for Don Schwall in June 1966, O'Dell is listed with the Pirates on series-2 card #162. The back adds up a split 1966: 5-5 with 10 saves and a 2.64 ERA over 61 appearances, 24 of them for the Braves and 37 for Pittsburgh, with just two starts in the whole year. What the card cannot show is the winter that followed, a month in the hospital where doctors traced the weakness and weight loss of that season to Addison's disease and started him on cortisone. It is an early number.
William Oliver O'Dell was a left-handed pitcher out of Clemson who signed with Baltimore in June 1954 as their first bonus baby, reaching the majors without a day in the minors. Army service cost him 1955 and most of 1956; back in the rotation from 1957, he made the American League All-Star team in 1958 and 1959. In the 1958 game he retired all nine National League batters he faced, among them Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, closing out a 4-3 win and taking the game's most valuable player honor. Traded to San Francisco in November 1959, he peaked at 19-14 in 1962, then finished with the Braves and Pirates at 105-100 with a 3.29 ERA over thirteen seasons. Ballplayers called him "Digger," after the friendly undertaker of radio and television's The Life of Riley. He farmed near Newberry, South Carolina, worked in textile public relations, coached American Legion ball, and entered the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976. He died there in 2018 at 85.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 301 | 7 | 54 | 155 | 50 | 22 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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. PSA registers a row for every one of the 624 states; SGC lists no separate row for the #149 white-streak state.
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Related cards
Team card: #492 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #10 Matty Alou
- #49 Roy Face
- #66 Manny Mota
- #84 Tommie Sisk
- #123 Pirates 1967 Rookie Stars
- #140 Willie Stargell
- #183 Jim Pagliaroni
- #203 Al McBean
- #221 Woody Fryman
- #238 National League 1966 Strikeout Leaders
- #240 National League 1966 Batting Leaders
- #242 National League 1966 RBI Leaders
- #266 Pitt Power
- #283 Gene Alley
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1967 Topps #162 card?
It is card #162 of the 609-card 1967 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy O'Dell of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
How many cards are in the 1967 Topps Baseball set?
609 cards, tracked as 624 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 609 without a gap - no number was skipped and none was used twice - and 15 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-12.