1968 Topps #53 Gene Alley
This card is sometimes confused with its look-alike from the 1968 Milton Bradley Win-A-Card game, which has a yellow-tinged back.
About Gene Alley
In 1968, Alley made his second straight NL All-Star team, hitting .245 over 133 games with a .974 fielding percentage at shortstop. He appears twice in the Topps set that year: #53, a first-series card, and #368, a fourth-series card in the Sporting News All-Star subset.
Leonard Eugene Alley, born July 10, 1940 in Richmond, Virginia, was a shortstop who spent his entire eleven-season major league career (1963-1973) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After several years bouncing among third base, second base and the outfield in the minors while nursing a throwing-arm problem, he settled in at shortstop and paired with Bill Mazeroski to anchor one of the game's best double-play combinations. Alley won Gold Glove Awards in 1966 and 1967, was named to The Sporting News All-Star team both years, and earned back-to-back National League All-Star selections in 1967 and 1968. His signature season came in 1966, when he hit a career-high .299 and helped the Pirates set a National League record with 215 double plays. Alley was part of Pittsburgh's three straight NL East division titles from 1970-1972 and was the Pirates' regular shortstop during their 1971 World Series championship season, though a knee injury limited him to just a handful of games that postseason. Shoulder and knee problems shortened his career, and he retired after the 1973 season. He earned the nickname Alley Oop after a standout 1960 season in the Northern League. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, though he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 606 | 28 | 215 | 252 | 65 | 25 | 12 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 68 | 3 | 14 | 43 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 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
More Gene Alley in this set: #368 Sporting News All-Stars
Team card: #308 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #1 National League 1967 Batting Leaders
- #3 National League 1967 RBI Leaders
- #19 Juan Pizarro
- #36 Pirates 1968 Rookie Stars
- #70 Bob Veale
- #86 Willie Stargell
- #150 Bob Clemente
- #175 Maury Wills
- #198 Roy Face
- #215 Jim Bunning
- #251 Manny Sanguillen
- #270 Matty Alou
- #288 Dave Wickersham
- #325 Manny Mota
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #53 card?
It is card #53 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Alley of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.