1968 Topps #255 Dean Chance
About Dean Chance
Three cards mark the comeback he promised: third-series solo #255 and two first-series leaders cards drawn from a 20-14, 2.73-ERA season in which he threw a rain-shortened five-inning perfect game against Boston on August 6 and a nine-inning no-hitter over Cleveland on August 25. Card #10, the American League 1967 Pitching Leaders with Jim Lonborg and Earl Wilson, comes two ways: a back spelling Lonborg correctly and an error back reading Lonberg. Card #12, the strikeout leaders card with Lonborg and Sam McDowell, spells Lonborg correctly.
Wilmer Dean Chance signed with the Baltimore Orioles out of Northwestern High School in West Salem, Ohio, in 1959 for a $30,000 bonus, and reached the majors with the expansion Los Angeles Angels, who acquired him from Washington the same day the Senators drafted him in December 1960. He threw from a three-quarters slot behind a windup that turned his back to the hitter, and he never looked in at the plate once he had the sign. Chance anchored the Angels' rotation through 1966 and Minnesota's from 1967, and was an All-Star in both 1964 and 1967. His Cy Young Award came in 1964, when he led the American League in wins, earned run average, innings, complete games and shutouts and the award still covered all of baseball. He took The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year prize in 1967, then finished up with Cleveland, the Mets and Detroit, retiring after 1971 at 128-115 with a 2.92 ERA and 1,534 strikeouts. He was a famously helpless hitter, a career .066 with 420 strikeouts in 662 at-bats. The Angels put him in their team Hall of Fame in 2015, the year he died at his home in Wooster, Ohio, the farm town where he was born.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 316 | 14 | 87 | 149 | 36 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 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
More Dean Chance in this set: #10 League Leaders, #12 League Leaders
Team card: #137 Minnesota Twins
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #4 American League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #6 American League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #10 American League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #12 American League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #28 Ted Uhlaender
- #44 Frank Kostro
- #64 Jim Merritt
- #80 Rod Carew
- #91 Jim Ollom
- #111 Rich Reese
- #165 Tony Oliva
- #181 Jerry Zimmerman
- #206 Cal Ermer
- #220 Harmon Killebrew
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #255 card?
It is card #255 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dean Chance of the Minnesota Twins.
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 2026-10-12.