1968 Topps #503 Al Jackson
About Al Jackson
It puts Jackson back in a Mets uniform after St. Louis sent him to New York in October 1967 as the player to be named in the deal that had shipped pitcher Jack Lamabe to the Cardinals three months earlier. Gil Hodges kept him in the swingman role: 25 appearances, nine starts, three saves, 92 innings, a 3-7 record and a 3.69 ERA, the lowest he ever posted in a Mets season.
Alvin Neill Jackson, born December 26, 1935 in Waco, Texas, was a 5-foot-10 left-hander who pitched ten major league seasons between 1959 and 1969 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. The 13th of 13 children, he attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and signed with Pittsburgh in 1955, but the Pirates used him in only 11 games across 1959 and 1961 and left him unprotected for the National League expansion draft of October 1961. The Mets took him 22nd overall, and he became the young franchise's most durable starter; his 43 Mets wins stood as the club record until Tom Seaver passed the mark in 1969. Two seasons in St. Louis brought the best pitching of his life and a World Series ring, after which he returned to New York. He finished 67-99 with a 3.98 ERA, 54 complete games, 14 shutouts and 738 strikeouts. Jackson later coached for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Mets and spent decades as a Mets minor league pitching instructor. He died in 2019 at 83 and was honored posthumously in 2021 with the Mets Hall of Fame Achievement Award.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 286 | 5 | 88 | 138 | 37 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. Slabs of the yellow team-letter #49 and #66 are 1968 Milton Bradley game cards and are not counted here.
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Related cards
Team card: #401 New York Mets
More New York Mets cards:
- #27 Gil Hodges
- #45 Tom Seaver
- #63 Dick Kenworthy
- #92 Ed Kranepool
- #114 Ron Swoboda
- #132 Bud Harrelson
- #177 Mets 1968 Rookie Stars
- #191 Dan Frisella
- #211 J.C. Martin
- #236 Tug McGraw
- #254 Cleon Jones
- #277 Jerry Buchek
- #292 Art Shamsky
- #313 Al Weis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #503 card?
It is card #503 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Jackson of the New York Mets.
Is 1968 Topps #503 a scarce card?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 458-533). Together with series 7 it forms the #458-598 block that hobby sources price at a modest premium; several catalogs call these cards high numbers outright.
How many cards are in the 1968 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 606 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 without a gap and no printed number carries two different cards; eight cards - six of the seven checklists, #10 AL Pitching Leaders and #400 Mike McCormick - carry a catalogued print variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, Beckett, 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 2026-10-13.