1974 Topps #29 Phil Niekro
About Phil Niekro
Niekro made 42 appearances for Atlanta in 1973, 30 of them starts. He worked 245 innings, with 9 complete games. His Braves card in 1974 Topps was #29. During the new season he increased his workload to a National League-leading 302 1/3 innings, completed 18 games and finished third in the Cy Young Award voting.
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 | 448 | 3 | 83 | 203 | 65 | 42 | 30 | 22 | 0 |
| SGC | 37 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 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: #483 Atlanta Braves
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- #5 Hank Aaron Special: 1966-1969
- #6 Hank Aaron Special: 1970-1973
- #45 Dave Johnson
- #71 Danny Frisella
- #93 Rod Gilbreath
- #140 Darrell Evans
- #164 Tom House
- #183 Johnny Oates
- #227 Mike Lum
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1974 Topps #29 card?
It is card #29 of the 660-card 1974 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves.
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.