1961 Topps #69 Earl Wilson
About Earl Wilson
Card #69, from the 1961 Topps first series, shows Wilson in a Red Sox cap, and the record standing behind it is slim: 13 games in 1960, nine of them starts, a 3-2 mark, a 4.71 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 65 innings. Control was the open question, since he walked 48 men in that same stretch. Boston then sent him back to the minors for all of 1961, so he did not make a single major league start during the year this card sat on shop counters. He was one season away from the Fenway Park afternoon that would settle the argument about him for good.
Earl Wilson was a right-handed pitcher out of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, born October 2, 1934. The Boston Red Sox signed him in 1953, the season his arm moved him out from behind the plate and onto the mound, and on July 28, 1959 he became the first Black pitcher to appear for the franchise. On June 26, 1962 he no-hit the Los Angeles Angels 2-0 at Fenway Park and homered in the same game, the first African American to throw a no-hitter in the American League. Boston traded him to Detroit in June 1966; he answered with a 13-6 finish and then, in 1967, a career-best 22 wins that tied Jim Lonborg for the American League lead. He started Game 3 of the 1968 World Series for the champion Tigers and closed out 1970 with the San Diego Padres, finishing 121-109 with a 3.69 ERA and 1,452 strikeouts. He also hit 35 home runs, a total only a handful of pitchers have ever bettered. He settled in Detroit as a businessman and later led the Baseball Assistance Team, which aids former players in need, before a heart attack took him in April 2005 at 70.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 366 | 1 | 40 | 174 | 112 | 19 | 14 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #69 card?
It is card #69 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Earl Wilson of the Boston Red Sox.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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 2026-10-05.