1968 Topps #270 Matty Alou
About Matty Alou
Card #1 opens the 1968 set with the National League batting leaders and lists Alou third at .338 in 1967, behind teammate Bob Clemente's .357 and the Phillies' Tony Gonzalez, who edged him for second by four ten-thousandths of a point. His solo series-3 card #270 covers the same season, in which he collected 186 hits over 139 games, his second straight .330-plus year for Pittsburgh.
Mateo Rojas Alou, always Matty on his Topps cards, signed with the New York Giants in the winter of 1956-57 out of San Cristobal province, Dominican Republic, the middle Alou brother between Felipe and Jesus. He debuted with the San Francisco Giants in September 1960 and spent six seasons there as a part-time outfielder before the Pirates landed him for pitcher Joe Gibbon and infielder Ozzie Virgil on December 1, 1965. Pirates manager Harry Walker handed him a 38-ounce bat and rebuilt his stroke to stop pulling and slap the ball the other way; his average jumped from .231 to .342 and he won the 1966 National League batting title, edging his own brother Felipe. Four straight .330-plus seasons ran through 1969, with All-Star selections in 1968 and 1969. He played all 162 games in 1969 and led the majors with 698 at-bats, then a major league record and since surpassed, and 231 hits, the most by a National League batter since Joe Medwick in 1937. Alou earned a World Series ring with the 1972 Oakland Athletics, ten years after losing with the 1962 Giants. He later played three seasons in Japan for the Taiheiyo Club Lions, then managed, coached and scouted in the Dominican Republic, and entered the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2007.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 317 | 3 | 44 | 147 | 67 | 24 | 14 | 18 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 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 Matty Alou in this set: #1 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
- #215 Jim Bunning
- #251 Manny Sanguillen
- #288 Dave Wickersham
- #325 Manny Mota
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #270 card?
It is card #270 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Matty Alou 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.