1970 Topps #160 Phil Niekro
About Phil Niekro
In the 1969 NLCS Niekro faced Tom Seaver and took the loss, allowing four earned runs over eight innings. Seaver also heads #69, the 1970 Topps League Leaders card for National League wins, which Niekro shares with him, Fergie Jenkins and Juan Marichal; his own Braves card is #160, from series 2. In 1970 he went 12-18 with a 4.27 ERA and gave up a league-high 40 home runs.
Phil Niekro, the son of an Ohio coal miner who taught him the knuckleball in the backyard, signed with the Milwaukee Braves organization in 1959 and reached the majors on April 15, 1964, after spending the 1963 season in the Army. The Sporting News first put his nickname, Knucksie, in print in 1969. That one pitch carried him through 24 major-league seasons, nearly all of them with the Braves from 1964 through 1983 plus a 1987 return, with later stops in New York, Cleveland and Toronto. He finished 318-274 with a 3.35 ERA and 3,342 strikeouts. 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 · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 576 | 3 | 45 | 208 | 136 | 72 | 51 | 61 | 0 |
| SGC | 77 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 12 | 12 | 1 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
More Phil Niekro in this set: #69 League Leaders
Team card: #472 Atlanta Braves
More Atlanta Braves cards:
- #17 Hoyt Wilhelm
- #48 Gil Garrido
- #65 1969 National League Home Run Leaders
- #69 1969 National League Pitching Leaders
- #86 Lum Harris
- #105 Tony Gonzalez
- #122 George Stone
- #145 Rico Carty
- #171 Jim Nash
- #172 Braves 1970 Rookie Stars
- #206 Clete Boyer
- #232 Bob Didier
- #278 Tommie Aaron
- #295 Cecil Upshaw
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1970 Topps #160 card?
It is card #160 of the 720-card 1970 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves.
How many cards are in the 1970 Topps Baseball set?
720 cards, tracked as 726 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 720 with none skipped, issued in seven series - #1-132, #133-263, #264-372, #373-459, #460-546, #547-633 and the high numbers, #634-720; 6 cards, all of them checklists, carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-25.