1961 Topps #269 Harry Chiti
About Harry Chiti
Card #269 sits in the third series of the 1961 set, a plain mid-run number; Chiti had been in and out of the majors since 1950. Topps has him with Detroit, following a 1960 season he split between Kansas City and the Tigers, and that move was no trade: Detroit bought his contract from the Athletics for $20,000 on July 26, 1960, with team president Bill DeWitt saying he wanted the catcher for his bat. The bat stayed quiet, .163 in 37 games, but Chiti still started 33 games behind the plate over the last two months.
Harry Chiti was a right-handed catcher born November 16, 1932, in Kincaid, Illinois, and raised in Detroit, where the Cubs signed him out of Northwestern High School in June 1950 for a reported $20,000 bonus. He debuted that September 27 at age 17, the youngest player in the majors that season, then lost 1953 and 1954 to Army service during the Korean War. His best year came in 1955: .231 with 11 home runs and 41 RBI in a career-high 113 games behind the plate for the Cubs. Over parts of ten seasons from 1950 to 1962 he appeared in 502 games for the Cubs, Kansas City Athletics, Detroit Tigers and New York Mets, batting .238 with 41 home runs and 179 RBI. A competent defensive catcher with a knack for handling the knuckleball, he was shuttled through sales and trades late in his career, and in June 1962 the Mets sent him back to Cleveland as the player to be named later in the deal that had brought him to New York - he is remembered as the first big leaguer traded for himself. He died January 31, 2002, in Haines City, Florida.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 308 | 3 | 37 | 147 | 78 | 22 | 10 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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 #269 card?
It is card #269 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Harry Chiti of the Detroit Tigers.
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.