1968 Topps #215 Jim Bunning
About Jim Bunning
Four 1968 cards report Bunning's 1967: the ERA leaders card #7, the pitching leaders card #9, the strikeout leaders card #11, and base card #215, which already shows him with Pittsburgh while the three leaders cards still list him as a Phillie. He went 17-15 for a fifth-place club yet led the National League with 302.1 innings and 253 strikeouts, posted a career-best 2.29 ERA behind Phil Niekro's league-leading 1.87, and finished second to Mike McCormick - the top name on #9 - in the Cy Young voting. Check the back of #7: a Milton Bradley look-alike exists, and its back is bright yellow instead of gold.
James Paul David Bunning signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1950 out of his freshman year at Xavier University, finished an economics degree there in three and a half years while grinding through the farm system, and made his major league debut in July 1955. A rangy right-hander with a wicked slider, he led the American League in wins and innings in 1957, his first full season, and no-hit the Boston Red Sox on July 20, 1958. He led his league in strikeouts three times, with 201 in both 1959 and 1960 and 253 in 1967. Traded to the Philadelphia Phillies after the 1963 season, Bunning threw a perfect game against the New York Mets on Father's Day, June 21, 1964, the first by a National League pitcher since 1880. He later pitched for the Pirates and Dodgers before a second Phillies stint. A nine-time All-Star and an early leader of the players union who helped bring in Marvin Miller, he retired in 1971 with 224 wins and 2,855 strikeouts, then second only to Walter Johnson. Kentucky elected him to the state Senate, the US House and the US Senate, making him the only major leaguer sent to both the Senate and Cooperstown. The Veterans Committee voted him into the Hall of Fame in 1996; he died in 2017.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Sports Collectors Digest
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 864 | 30 | 200 | 372 | 113 | 54 | 46 | 49 | 0 |
| SGC | 100 | 0 | 11 | 28 | 23 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 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 Jim Bunning in this set: #7 League Leaders, #9 League Leaders, #11 League Leaders
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
- #53 Gene Alley
- #70 Bob Veale
- #86 Willie Stargell
- #150 Bob Clemente
- #175 Maury Wills
- #198 Roy Face
- #251 Manny Sanguillen
- #270 Matty Alou
- #288 Dave Wickersham
- #325 Manny Mota
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #215 card?
It is card #215 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Bunning 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.