1974 Topps #606 Rookie Outfielders - Jim Fuller / Wilbur Howard / Tommy Smith / Otto Velez
On this card: Jim Fuller, Wilbur Howard, Tommy Smith, Otto Velez
About this card
Cards #596-608 are the thirteen four-player Rookie Prospects cards, each titled by position. A Rookie Prospects card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card - on #601, #603, #604, #605 and #608 one of the four had already appeared on one, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
The story on this card
Earl Weaver broke Fuller in as a platoon bat against left-handers, and his first home run of 1974 came April 17 off Detroit's Woodie Fryman. Groundskeeper Pat Santarone said anybody with arms like his belonged in the circus. Sent to Rochester in August and recalled in September, he finished at .222 with 7 home runs and 28 RBIs. Card #606 is a Rookie Prospects panel, the rookie card of Fuller (Orioles), Wilbur Howard (Brewers), Tommy Smith (Indians) and Otto Velez (Yankees). Outfielder with tape-measure power who hit 11 home runs in 107 games for the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros between 1973 and 1977. He was the 1973 International League MVP at Triple-A Rochester, where he hit 39 home runs.
Howard appears on the four-player Rookie Prospects card #606 as a Milwaukee Brewer, alongside Jim Fuller of the Orioles, Tommy Smith of the Indians and Otto Velez of the Yankees; it is a rookie card for all four. He started the season in the minors, was called up by Houston in mid-June, and hit .216 with two home runs and four steals in 64 games. Switch-hitting outfielder who played for Milwaukee in 1973 and Houston from 1974 to 1978. In 1975 he played 121 games and hit .283 with 32 stolen bases. He finished with a .250 average and 60 steals.
Smith made his major league debut on September 6, 1973, and on September 11 hit his first major league home run, an inside-the-park shot. He finished 1973 with 14 games, a .244 average and two home runs for Cleveland. The following January he broke an arm playing basketball. His rookie card, #606, is a Rookie Prospects card printed with Cleveland, shared with Jim Fuller (Baltimore), Wilbur Howard (Milwaukee) and Otto Velez (New York Yankees). Left-handed-hitting outfielder who played parts of five seasons, four with Cleveland and one with Seattle, after pitching for North Carolina State in the 1968 College World Series. He hit .232 in 121 major league games and later opened a youth baseball training facility.
Velez made his debut on September 4, 1973, and got his first hit off Detroit's Mickey Lolich. On September 23 he hit his first home run, off Cleveland's Dick Tidrow, and homered off him again in his next at-bat as the Yankees won 9-1. He finished at .195 with 2 home runs in 23 games. His rookie card, #606, groups him in the Rookie Prospects subset with Jim Fuller (Orioles), Wilbur Howard (Brewers) and Tommy Smith (Indians); Velez is printed with the Yankees. Otto Velez, a right-handed hitter from Ponce, Puerto Rico, played for the Yankees, the original Toronto Blue Jays and the Indians from 1973 to 1983. He hit four home runs in a May 1980 doubleheader, one of each kind from solo to grand slam.
Sources: Wikipedia (Jim Fuller (outfielder)) · Wikipedia (Wilbur Howard) · Wikipedia (Tommy Smith) · SABR BioProject · National Baseball Hall of Fame · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 211 | 4 | 49 | 121 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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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Related cards
Team cards: #16 Baltimore Orioles, #314 Milwaukee Brewers, #541 Cleveland Indians, #363 New York Yankees
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1974 Topps #606 card?
It is card #606 of the 660-card 1974 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Fuller, Wilbur Howard, Tommy Smith and Otto Velez. Cards #596-608 are the thirteen four-player Rookie Prospects cards, each titled by position. A Rookie Prospects card is a rookie card for the players on it who had no earlier Topps flagship card - on #601, #603, #604, #605 and #608 one of the four had already appeared on one, and the rookie-card answer on each card names the players it counts for.
Is 1974 Topps #606 a rookie card?
Yes - #606 is a rookie card for every player pictured on it: Jim Fuller, Wilbur Howard, Tommy Smith and Otto Velez.
How many cards are in the 1974 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 678 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, issued all at once as a single series and printed in equal quantities; 17 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fourteen San Diego / "Washington Nat'l Lea." pairs (thirteen Padres player cards and the #226 team card), the three-state #599 Rookie Pitchers, the #608 Apodaco misspelling and the #654 Jesus Alou front without a position.
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.