1968 Topps #89 Jake Gibbs
This card also exists as a 1968 Milton Bradley Win-A-Card look-alike; those copies have yellow backs where the Topps card's is orange, and some show a thin white line along one border edge.
About Jake Gibbs
Series-one card #89 marks the breakthrough. Elston Howard was traded to Boston on August 3, 1967, and Gibbs finished that season as the New York catcher: 116 games, 99 of them behind the plate, 374 at-bats, 87 hits and a .233 average for a ninth-place club. The same front turns up in the 1968 Milton Bradley Win-A-Card game; those copies have yellow backs instead of orange, and some carry a thin white line along a border edge.
Jake Gibbs, born Jerry Dean Gibbs in Grenada, Mississippi, in 1938, was a two-sport star at Ole Miss. He led the Rebels to their first SEC baseball championship in 1959, and in the 1961 Sugar Bowl he ran for both touchdowns and took MVP honors in a 14-6 win over Rice that capped a 10-0-1 season the Football Writers Association of America crowned national champion. A unanimous All-America quarterback and the 1960 SEC Player of the Year, he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Oilers and chose baseball anyway, signing with New York in 1961 for a bonus reported at $100,000 or more; the Yankees turned the young infielder into a catcher in 1963. His whole ten-year career, 1962 through 1971, was spent in the Bronx, .233 with 25 home runs and 146 RBI in 538 games, first backing up Elston Howard, then catching regularly in 1967 and 1968, finally giving way to Thurman Munson. He went home to coach Ole Miss baseball for 19 seasons, 1972 through 1990, winning 485 games, and entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 609 | 31 | 200 | 263 | 61 | 25 | 20 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 28 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #89 card?
It is card #89 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jake Gibbs of the New York Yankees.
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.