1968 Topps #436 Hal Lanier
About Hal Lanier
Lanier's 1968 Topps card, #436, falls in the fifth series and shows him as a San Francisco Giant. That season he played 151 games at shortstop and, despite a .206 batting average, led National League shortstops in putouts with 282 and posted the league's best fielding percentage at the position. It was that defensive standout year that kept him an everyday player even as his offense lagged.
Harold Clifton "Hal" Lanier broke in with the San Francisco Giants in June 1964 and spent ten major league seasons, mostly at second base and shortstop, before finishing his playing career with the New York Yankees in 1973. The son of former big league pitcher Max Lanier, he was known as a defense-first infielder who studied opposing pitchers and hitters closely enough that Willie Mays made him an infield captain, responsible for spotting a tiring pitcher and going out to the mound to steady him. Lanier hit .274 in his rookie year and was picked for the 1964 Topps All-Star Rookie team, but his bat cooled in the seasons that followed while his glove work at shortstop, including a league-leading fielding season, kept him in the lineup. He finished with a .228 career average, 8 home runs and 273 RBI over 1,196 games. After retiring he moved into coaching and managing, most notably leading the Houston Astros to the 1986 NL West title and winning NL Manager of the Year in his rookie season at the helm.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 239 | 10 | 49 | 119 | 28 | 19 | 8 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 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 San Francisco Giants cards:
- #5 National League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #9 National League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #11 National League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #32 Joe Gibbon
- #50 Willie Mays
- #73 Jim Hart
- #85 Gaylord Perry
- #104 Dick Dietz
- #126 Bobby Etheridge
- #147 Frank Linzy
- #169 Bob Bolin
- #185 Tom Haller
- #205 Juan Marichal
- #223 Ollie Brown
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #436 card?
It is card #436 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Lanier of the San Francisco Giants.
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.