1974 Topps #558 Bill Fahey
About Bill Fahey
On the first day of 1974 spring training a thrown ball hit Fahey in the face and put him in a hospital for an extended stay. New manager Billy Martin gave the starting job to Jim Sundberg and the backup role to Duke Sims, and Fahey opened the season at Spokane. He appeared in six games for Texas, collecting 4 hits in 16 at-bats. Topps issued him as #558, a Texas Rangers card.
Bill Fahey was a left-handed-hitting catcher who spent 11 seasons in the majors, 1971 to 1983, nearly all of them as a backup, with the Senators and Rangers, the Padres and the Tigers. A Detroit native, he played five sports at Union High in Redford, Michigan, and Washington made him the first overall pick of the January 1970 secondary draft. Ted Williams predicted he would be the American League's All-Star catcher in 1975. Instead a run of injuries, including a broken hand in 1975, slowed him while Jim Sundberg took over in Texas. In December 1978 the Rangers sent him to San Diego with Mike Hargrove and Kurt Bevacqua for Oscar Gamble and Dave Roberts. He hit .287 in 73 games for the Padres in 1979, set career highs in games and hits in 1980, and was sold to Detroit in March 1981. He finished with a .241 average, 7 home runs and 83 RBIs in 383 games, then coached for the Tigers in 1983 and the Giants from 1986 to 1991.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 135 | 2 | 52 | 61 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 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 card: #184 Texas Rangers
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- #268 Tom Grieve
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1974 Topps #558 card?
It is card #558 of the 660-card 1974 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Fahey of the Texas Rangers.
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.