1968 Topps #92 Ed Kranepool
About Ed Kranepool
First series, base card, no rookie tag and no scarcity story - #92 is a card you pulled early and often. Its back carries the best batting average Kranepool had posted to that point, .269, with 126 hits, 10 home runs and 54 RBI over 141 games in 1967. He was twenty-two that season and already in his sixth big league year, which tells you how early he had started. By the time the card reached store shelves, Gil Hodges had taken over as Mets manager and inherited him as the first baseman, one season short of the miracle.
Ed Kranepool was born November 8, 1944, in the Bronx and starred at James Monroe High School before the expansion Mets signed him on June 27, 1962 for an $80,000 bonus. He debuted that September 22 at seventeen, the first teenager to play for the club, and was still on the roster in 1979 as the last man left from the original 1962 Mets. A left-handed first baseman who also worked the outfield, he spent all eighteen of his major league seasons in New York, the longest tenure in franchise history, and remains the Mets' all-time leader in games played with 1,853, alongside 1,418 hits, 118 home runs, 614 RBI and a .261 average. He was New York's lone All-Star representative in 1965 and homered in Game Three of the 1969 World Series, then reached the Series again with the 1973 National League champions. Late in his career 'Steady Eddie' became one of the game's most reliable pinch hitters, batting .396 off the bench from 1974 through 1978 and going 17-for-35 in 1974 for a .486 mark that still stands as the season record for pinch hitting. He later worked as a stockbroker and restaurateur, joined the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1990, and died September 8, 2024, in Boca Raton, Florida.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · MLB.com
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 531 | 38 | 173 | 221 | 51 | 21 | 14 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 31 | 0 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 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
- #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
- #345 Bob Hendley
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #92 card?
It is card #92 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Kranepool of the New York Mets.
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.