Cards from the Old Man: Part 17 Phil Niekro

This is the seventeenth in a series of posts about cards I received from the old collector in our town who had library catalogs full of cards from the 1950's-1970's. You can see those original posts here and here if you missed them.

Today's card is another repeat player in the series and is the only 1966 card I got from the Old Man. Well, it's the only one I still have anyway.

Phil Niekro was somewhere around 26 when the picture was taken for this 1966 Topps card. He looks so young compared to many of the cards I was more familiar with in 1982. Phil was the 7th card featured in this series and I examined his career numbers in that post so I won't bore you with them again. You can check it out here if you missed it the first time.

This card has a pretty significant gouge in the back. Fortunately it doesn't go all the way through to the front.

The cartoon/sketch says Phil plays basketball as a hobby. It shows him with a basketball, two bats and a football.

I love the write up. It says "The knuckle-balling right hander has been a pleasant surprise for the Braves." I would say pleasant is an understatement. He went on to win 318 games and strikeout 3,342 batters.