1968 Topps #196 Gary Nolan
About Gary Nolan
Nolan's 1968 card catches him coming off a standout rookie year, but the season itself was a fight through pain: a spring-training shoulder strain sent him briefly to Class A Tampa before Cincinnati recalled him. He rebounded with a seven-game winning streak and closed the year 9-4 with a team-leading 2.40 ERA over 22 starts. His best outing was a June 29 shutout at San Francisco, in which he also hit the only home run of his career off Ray Sadecki. Card #196 is part of the set's second print series and is recognized as his rookie card.
Gary Nolan broke in with the Cincinnati Reds at age 18 in 1967, striking out the side in his first inning and finishing his rookie year 14-8 with a 2.58 ERA and 206 strikeouts, third in Rookie of the Year voting. Shoulder trouble surfaced the following spring and dogged him for the rest of his career, yet he kept winning: 18-7 in 1970 as the Reds took the NL pennant, a league-leading .750 winning percentage on a 15-5, 1.99 ERA mark in 1972, and 15-9 seasons in both 1975 and 1976 as the Big Red Machine won back-to-back World Series. A calcium spur cost him almost all of 1973 and 1974. He picked up his only World Series win against the Yankees in the 1976 sweep before arm problems ended his run with a brief 1977 stint split between the Reds and California Angels. He retired with a 110-70 record, a 3.08 ERA and 1,039 strikeouts over 250 games. He is not a Hall of Fame inductee.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 256 | 5 | 69 | 112 | 30 | 14 | 10 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 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. Slabs of the yellow team-letter #49 and #66 are 1968 Milton Bradley game cards and are not counted here.
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Related cards
Team card: #574 Cincinnati Reds
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- #48 Ted Davidson
- #74 Milt Pappas
- #90 Vada Pinson
- #108 Don Pavletich
- #130 Tony Perez
- #133 Fred Whitfield
- #148 Dave Bristol
- #171 Don Nottebart
- #213 Chico Ruiz
- #230 Pete Rose
- #247 Reds 1968 Rookie Stars
- #264 Ted Abernathy
- #283 Mel Queen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #196 card?
It is card #196 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gary Nolan of the Cincinnati Reds.
Is 1968 Topps #196 a rookie card?
Yes - #196 is the 1968 Topps rookie card of Gary Nolan.
How many cards are in the 1968 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 606 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 without a gap and no printed number carries two different cards; eight cards - six of the seven checklists, #10 AL Pitching Leaders and #400 Mike McCormick - carry a catalogued print variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Beckett, 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.