1968 Topps #44 Frank Kostro
Milton Bradley's 1968 Win-A-Card game included a look-alike of this card; the game version is told apart by its more vivid yellow back.
About Frank Kostro
1968 Topps #44 puts Kostro in the set's first series in a Twins uniform. Behind it lies the best bench season he ever had. Leading the Pacific Coast League at .369 with a 17-game hitting streak, he was recalled from Denver on June 16, 1967 to cover for injured rookie Ron Clark, started his first two games in left field, and then almost never took the field again. He hit instead: nine hits and three walks in 26 pinch-hitting trips, a .462 on-base percentage and a .391 pinch average, the best in the majors that year among players with more than 20 pinch-hit chances. Overall he batted .323 in 31 at-bats.
Frank Jerry Kostro was born on August 4, 1937 in Windber, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the coal-mining community of Blough, earning 11 varsity letters at nearby Forbes High School. He accepted a combined football-basketball scholarship from Michigan rather than the Tigers' first offer, then left school after one semester when his father was hurt in a mine accident and signed with Detroit in 1956. Scouts loved his bat and doubted his glove, and he spent 14 professional seasons in North America, hitting .303 in nearly 1,200 minor-league games for Jamestown, Durham, Birmingham, Denver and other stops. In the majors he played 266 games over seven seasons (1962-65, 1967-69) for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins, starting only 80 of them, at five positions, and batting .244 with 114 hits and five home runs. Sent down in June 1965, he missed the Twins' World Series roster but was voted a partial share by his teammates and came away with a ring. He finished in Japan with the Hankyu Braves in 1970, then built an insurance business in Denver, served on the Harmon Killebrew Foundation board, and was inducted into the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Cardboard Connection
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 571 | 25 | 214 | 248 | 50 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 34 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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: #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
- #64 Jim Merritt
- #80 Rod Carew
- #91 Jim Ollom
- #111 Rich Reese
- #165 Tony Oliva
- #181 Jerry Zimmerman
- #206 Cal Ermer
- #220 Harmon Killebrew
- #243 Rich Rollins
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #44 card?
It is card #44 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Kostro 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.