1968 Topps #475 Joe Niekro
About Joe Niekro
Card #475 comes from the sixth print series and pictures Niekro with the Chicago Cubs as he entered his second full major-league season. That year he drew the Cubs' Opening Day start against the Cincinnati Reds, allowing five runs on six hits in just 4 1/3 innings of a 9-4 loss, then settled into a starter's workload the rest of the season, finishing 14-10 with a 4.32 ERA across 177 innings.
Joe Niekro pitched 22 big-league seasons from 1967 to 1988, breaking in with the Chicago Cubs before stops with the San Diego Padres, Detroit Tigers, Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. He found his greatest success in Houston, where he mastered the knuckleball his father had taught him and his older brother Phil, becoming the first Astros pitcher to win 20 games in back-to-back seasons (1979 and 1980). His 1979 campaign brought his only All-Star selection, a league-leading 21 wins, and the TSN Pitcher of the Year award. He finished his career with 221 wins, and he and Phil combined for a major-league record 539 victories by a pair of brothers. Niekro also reached the 1987 World Series with Minnesota. He died in 2006 following a brain aneurysm; his family's foundation now funds research into that condition.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 526 | 13 | 149 | 235 | 58 | 26 | 24 | 20 | 1 |
| SGC | 53 | 0 | 12 | 22 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
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 Chicago Cubs cards:
- #5 National League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #9 National League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #11 National League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #13 Chuck Hartenstein
- #37 Billy Williams
- #60 Ken Holtzman
- #83 John Stephenson
- #101 Glenn Beckert
- #119 Ted Savage
- #136 Randy Hundley
- #159 Don Kessinger
- #179 Bill Stoneman
- #184 Lou Johnson
- #202 Adolfo Phillips
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #475 card?
It is card #475 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Niekro of the Chicago Cubs.
Is 1968 Topps #475 a scarce card?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 458-533). Together with series 7 it forms the #458-598 block that hobby sources price at a modest premium; several catalogs call these cards high numbers outright.
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.