1968 Topps #257 Phil Niekro
About Phil Niekro
Two 1968 cards mark the arrival. League Leaders card #7 puts Niekro atop the National League earned run average list for 1967, his 1.87 ahead of the Phillies pair of Jim Bunning and Chris Short, and it is his only leader-board card of the decade. His own third-series card, #257, reached packs as he settled in as a full-time starter: 34 starts among 37 games, 14-12 with a 2.59 ERA, 15 complete games and five shutouts.
Phil Niekro, the son of an Ohio coal miner who taught him the knuckleball in the backyard, signed with the Milwaukee Braves organization as a teenager and reached the majors on April 15, 1964, after spending the 1963 season in the Army. Knucksie, a nickname The Sporting News first put in print during his 1969 breakout, rode that one pitch through 24 major-league seasons to a 318-274 record, a 3.35 ERA and 3,342 strikeouts, nearly all of it with the Braves from 1964 through 1983 plus a 1987 return, with later stops in New York, Cleveland and Toronto. He made five All-Star teams, won five Gold Gloves, led the National League in wins twice, in 1974 and 1979, and led the major leagues in ERA at 1.87 in 1967. On August 5, 1973, he no-hit the San Diego Padres for the Braves' first no-hitter since the move to Atlanta. At 46, on October 6, 1985, he shut out Toronto for career win number 300, and he is still the only knuckleballer to reach 300. He and younger brother Joe won 539 games between them, the most by any pair of brothers. The Hall of Fame elected him in 1997, his fifth year on the ballot, and he died in December 2020 at 81.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,139 | 15 | 143 | 329 | 205 | 169 | 111 | 167 | 0 |
| SGC | 203 | 0 | 15 | 33 | 41 | 41 | 38 | 34 | 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. 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
More Phil Niekro in this set: #7 League Leaders
Team card: #221 Atlanta Braves
More Atlanta Braves cards:
- #3 National League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #5 National League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #7 National League 1967 ERA Leaders
- #30 Joe Torre
- #55 Felipe Alou
- #76 Braves 1968 Rookie Stars
- #93 Tony Cloninger
- #110 Hank Aaron
- #134 Pat Jarvis
- #166 Claude Raymond
- #174 Bob Tillman
- #187 Sonny Jackson
- #203 Dick Kelley
- #241 Felix Millan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #257 card?
It is card #257 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves.
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.