1968 Topps #52 Hawk Taylor
About Hawk Taylor
1968 Topps #52 pictures Taylor in California Angels gear, but the season the card was issued for never put him on a big-league field: he spent all of 1968 in the minor leagues. The Angels had taken him from the Mets in a July 1967 trade, and their general manager was Fred Haney, the same man who had been Taylor's first big-league manager in Milwaukee back in 1957. He rewarded them with the best batting mark of his career, .308 in 23 games and 52 at-bats down the stretch of 1967. Card #52 lands in Topps' first series, an early-run common.
Robert Dale "Hawk" Taylor (1939-2012), born in Metropolis, Illinois, was a schoolboy sensation who batted .650 as a senior and signed with the Milwaukee Braves hours after his 1957 high-school graduation for a reported $119,000, the richest bonus any prospect had been given to that point. Bonus rules forced the 18-year-old straight onto the Braves' major-league roster, where he rode the bench through most of the 1957 championship season, used mainly as a pinch runner. Once the rule eased in 1958 he spent several years developing in the minors, earning a Triple-A All-Star selection as a catcher in 1960. Injury and Army service limited him to 56 games for Milwaukee across 1961-63, and the Braves sold him to the New York Mets in December 1963. New York gave him the fullest opportunity of his career in 1964, and in 1966 he hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in Mets history. He finished with the California Angels and the expansion Kansas City Royals before a back injury ended his playing days in 1971, then earned two degrees at Murray State and taught and coached baseball in Tennessee and western Kentucky. The nickname came from a boyhood favorite movie serial, "Hawk of the Wilderness."
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 317 | 13 | 96 | 149 | 32 | 18 | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 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
Team card: #252 California Angels
More California Angels cards:
- #24 Bobby Locke
- #75 Don Mincher
- #102 Jose Cardenal
- #121 Jimmie Hall
- #143 Pete Cimino
- #170 Jim Fregosi
- #193 Jack Hamilton
- #216 Bubba Morton
- #238 Tom Satriano
- #271 Bobby Knoop
- #289 Woody Held
- #305 Minnie Rojas
- #328 Angels 1968 Rookie Stars
- #347 George Brunet
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #52 card?
It is card #52 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hawk Taylor of the California Angels.
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.