1968 Topps #471 Orlando Pena
About Orlando Pena
Pena is pictured as an Indian on #471, a sixth-series card, but he never pitched for Cleveland in 1968. He missed the Opening Day roster and was optioned to Portland of the Pacific Coast League, where he was 3-6 with a 2.75 ERA before his contract was sold to the league-rival Seattle Angels on July 9; he went 4-0 there and closed the year 7-6 with a 2.80 ERA in 56 games. The expansion Kansas City Royals bought his contract that September. Two full seasons passed in the minors before his next big league pitch, in 1970 with Pittsburgh.
Orlando Gregorio Pena was born November 17, 1933, in Victoria de las Tunas, Cuba, and worked as a butcher in his father's supermarket before baseball took over. He was one of three players signed out of a 1955 Cincinnati tryout camp in Havana, and he climbed through the Florida State, Carolina and International leagues to a major league debut on August 24, 1958, retiring six straight Dodgers in relief and getting the win. A slight right-hander at 5-11 and 154 pounds, he leaned on a forkball he had learned from Elroy Face and was accused often enough of loading the ball that he admitted throwing a few. Cincinnati shuttled him back to Triple-A, and it was the Kansas City Athletics, who got him from the Milwaukee organization in August 1962, that finally handed him a rotation spot. From 1965 on he was a reliever, and a persistent one: eight clubs - Reds, Athletics, Tigers, Indians, Pirates, Orioles, Cardinals, Angels - across 14 seasons through 1975, finishing 56-77 with a 3.71 ERA, 40 saves and 818 strikeouts in 427 games. He scouted for the Tigers and White Sox afterward and is a member of the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted in 2000.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 297 | 21 | 88 | 145 | 25 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 28 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 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
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #8 American League 1967 ERA Leaders
- #12 American League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #16 Indians 1968 Rookie Stars
- #35 Steve Hargan
- #54 Stan Williams
- #71 Vern Fuller
- #94 Lee Maye
- #115 Sam McDowell
- #176 Bob Allen
- #197 Larry Brown
- #218 Ken Suarez
- #237 Alvin Dark
- #269 Bob Tiefenauer
- #295 Sonny Siebert
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #471 card?
It is card #471 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Orlando Pena of the Cleveland Indians.
Is 1968 Topps #471 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.