1976 Topps #413 Pete Varney
About Pete Varney
Varney played 36 games in 1975 as Brian Downing's backup, hitting .271 in 107 at-bats. Chuck Tanner started him 27 times, often when Jesse Jefferson started, because Jefferson preferred Varney's bigger target to Downing's. Varney took over as player representative on June 15 when Stan Bahnsen was traded, and on August 19 hit his first major league home run, off Larry Gura at Shea Stadium in a 7-6 White Sox win. Topps issued his rookie card as #413 in 1976, under the Chicago White Sox.
Pete Varney was a 6-foot-3, 235-pound catcher who played for the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves between 1973 and 1976 and later coached Brandeis baseball for 34 seasons. At Harvard he caught for the baseball team and played end in football, and on November 23, 1968 he caught Frank Champi's two-point conversion pass with time expired to tie Yale 29-29. As a senior in 1971 he hit .362, made the American Baseball Coaches Association All-America first team and led Harvard to the College World Series; the White Sox then took him first overall in the June secondary draft. A late-August 1973 injury to Dick Allen brought him up from Iowa, and he debuted on August 26 against Detroit. He went to Atlanta in 1976 in a trade for pitcher Blue Moon Odom, and he finished with a .247 major league average and five home runs in 69 games. His playing career ended after the 1977 minor league season. Varney retired from Brandeis in 2015 with a 705-528-6 record, more wins than any coach of a single team in school history. He is in the Harvard Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame (1996) and the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Hall of Fame (2018).
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 99 | 12 | 50 | 33 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 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 card: #656 Chicago White Sox Team
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #23 Brian Downing
- #47 Jesse Jefferson
- #80 Jim Kaat
- #110 Carlos May
- #131 Bill Stein
- #154 Bucky Dent
- #180 Rich Gossage
- #205 1975 Major League Leading Fireman
- #212 Pat Kelly
- #237 Dave Hamilton
- #258 Nyls Nyman
- #282 Dan Osborn
- #309 Bill Melton
- #333 Bob Coluccio
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1976 Topps #413 card?
It is card #413 of the 660-card 1976 Topps Baseball set, picturing Pete Varney of the Chicago White Sox.
Is 1976 Topps #413 a rookie card?
Yes - #413 is the 1976 Topps rookie card of Pete Varney.
How many cards are in the 1976 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, numbered 1 through 660 with none skipped and printed in equal quantities as a single series. No card carries a catalogued print variation, so the base set and the master set are the same 660 cards.
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.