1978 Topps #185 Ellis Valentine
About Ellis Valentine
Valentine hit .289 with 25 home runs in 1978 and took the only Gold Glove of his career. On September 19 he watched a drive strike the top of the wall before running to second. Picked off before the next pitch, he was tagged out in a rundown and shrugged at the booing crowd. Manager Dick Williams fined him $500 and suspended him for the next game. He is listed with the Expos on card #185.
Ellis Valentine played right field for the Montreal Expos before moving to the Mets, Angels and Rangers. He was the first professional athlete signed out of Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles, taken by the Expos in the second round of the 1972 draft, and he reached Montreal in September 1975. On May 30, 1980, a pitch from the Cardinals' Roy Thomas cracked his cheekbone in six places; he returned on July 10 with part of a football face mask on his helmet. On May 29, 1981, the Expos dealt him to the Mets for Jeff Reardon and Dan Norman. He later played for the Angels in 1983 and the Rangers in 1985, with a bruised heel keeping him out of the majors all of 1984. He hit .278 with 123 home runs in 894 games. He fought drug and alcohol addiction through his career, entered rehab in Phoenix in September 1986, and became a counselor; in 2014 he founded the nonprofit RAFT Recovery.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 98 | 13 | 38 | 34 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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: #244 Montreal Expos Team
More Montreal Expos cards:
- #15 Tony Perez
- #43 Bill Atkinson
- #72 Andre Dawson
- #97 Stan Bahnsen
- #120 Gary Carter
- #221 Chris Speier
- #269 Wayne Twitchell
- #294 Larry Parrish
- #321 Santo Alcala
- #348 Del Unser
- #374 Jose Morales
- #399 Pete Mackanin
- #414 Darold Knowles
- #425 Steve Rogers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1978 Topps #185 card?
It is card #185 of the 726-card 1978 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ellis Valentine of the Montreal Expos.
How many cards are in the 1978 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, and 728 collectible states: #23 Bump Wills comes with or without a black circle, and #374 Jose Morales with or without black stitching over the red laces, so the master set counts both states of each.
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.