1971 Topps #30 Phil Niekro
About Phil Niekro
Niekro made 32 starts in 1970, working 229 2/3 innings with 168 strikeouts. Topps gave him #30, a first-series Braves card, in 1971. That year he went 15-14 and brought his ERA down to 2.98. He worked 268 2/3 innings, with 18 complete games and four shutouts. Across 1971, 1972 and 1973 he went 44-36.
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 | 950 | 0 | 12 | 219 | 339 | 170 | 97 | 113 | 0 |
| SGC | 175 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 45 | 41 | 33 | 34 | 7 |
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
Team card: #652 Atlanta Braves
More Atlanta Braves cards:
- #8 Mike McQueen
- #52 Braves 1971 Rookie Stars
- #62 1970 National League Batting Leaders
- #81 Felix Millan
- #88 Hal King
- #147 Bob Priddy
- #173 Gil Garrido
- #194 Mike Lum
- #223 Cecil Upshaw
- #244 Bob Tillman
- #270 Rico Carty
- #306 Jim Nash
- #346 Lum Harris
- #359 Ron Reed
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1971 Topps #30 card?
It is card #30 of the 752-card 1971 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves.
How many cards are in the 1971 Topps Baseball set?
752 cards, tracked as 761 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 752 with none skipped, issued in six print series (132/131/130/130/120/109 cards), the sixth (#644-752) the high numbers; seven cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - the #42, #265 and #306 photo pairs and the #123, #206, #369 and #619 checklists, #369 and #619 in three printings each.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA (its price guide, master set registry and set article), 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.