1968 Topps #217 Turk Farrell
About Turk Farrell
Farrell is back in Phillies red on a third-series card. Philadelphia bought him from Houston on May 8, 1967 for $35,000, hunting bullpen help, and got one of the best seasons of his career: 9-6 with a 2.05 ERA and a team-leading 12 saves in 50 appearances after the deal, part of a 10-6 year once his seven games as an Astro are counted. Beginning July 17 he went six weeks without allowing a run, 32 innings over 20 outings. Gene Mauch's verdict was that Farrell was a freak who might go on four or five more years.
Richard Joseph "Turk" Farrell was a 6-foot-4 right-hander whose 14 major-league seasons (1956-1969) were all in the National League, with the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston's Colt .45s/Astros. Born in Boston on April 8, 1934, he was stricken with polio before his second birthday, wore a leg brace until he was six and was left with a permanent limp and a left foot an inch and a half shorter than his right. The nickname came from his father Tom, a big man who kept the graves at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline and was known as Big Turk. Signed by the Phillies out of St. Mary's High School in Brookline in 1953, Farrell threw a fastball hitters dreaded, and with Jack Meyer and Jim Owens he formed Philadelphia's hard-living Dalton Gang. He was picked for the National League All-Star squad in 1958, 1962, 1964 and 1965, twice over in 1962, when the majors staged two All-Star Games. He finished 106-111 with a 3.45 ERA, 83 saves and 1,177 strikeouts in 590 games. Farrell was killed in a car accident in Great Yarmouth, England, on June 10, 1977, at 43, while working as a safety supervisor on North Sea oil rigs; in 2020 he was revealed to be the biological father of big-league pitcher Richard Dotson.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 294 | 9 | 94 | 137 | 33 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 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. 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: #477 Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #1 National League 1967 Batting Leaders
- #7 National League 1967 ERA Leaders
- #9 National League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #11 National League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #17 Dick Hall
- #39 Cookie Rojas
- #59 Don Lock
- #81 Larry Jackson
- #98 Gary Sutherland
- #112 Woody Fryman
- #122 Gene Mauch
- #139 Chris Short
- #173 John Boozer
- #190 Bill White
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #217 card?
It is card #217 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Turk Farrell of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.