1973 Topps #518 Bob Veale
About Bob Veale
Pittsburgh released Veale on May 10, 1972, and he accepted an assignment to Triple-A Charleston. Boston signed him on September 1, and across the two clubs he went 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA and two saves in 11 games that season. Card #518, in the fourth series of 1973 Topps, pictures him with the Red Sox. He earned a spot on the 1973 staff and pitched 32 games in relief, saving 11 with a 3.47 ERA.
Robert Andrew Veale was a 6-foot-6, bespectacled left-hander, one of the hardest throwers in the National League, who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1962 through 1972. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 28, 1935, he worked the concession stand at Rickwood Field as a boy and pitched batting practice for the Birmingham Black Barons; his father had pitched for the Homestead Grays. Veale went to Benedictine College on an athletic scholarship and signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur free agent in 1958. A league-leading 208 strikeouts for Columbus of the International League in 1961 earned him the call, and he debuted on April 16, 1962. Wild as well as overpowering, he led the National League in walks four times, led it with 250 strikeouts in 1964, and set a career high of 276 in 1965 that is still the Pirates' modern-era record. A two-time All-Star, he finished 120-95 with a 3.07 ERA and 1,703 strikeouts, and won a ring with the 1971 world champion Pirates. Released by Pittsburgh in May 1972, he signed with Boston that September and pitched there through 1974, then taught pitching in the Atlanta and New York farm systems. He entered the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and died in Birmingham on January 3, 2025, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 239 | 8 | 91 | 114 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #518 card?
It is card #518 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Veale of the Boston Red Sox.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
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.