1968 Topps #595 Phil Ortega
About Phil Ortega
Gil Hodges left for the Mets after 1967, and Ortega's hold on a rotation spot went with him. Under first-year manager Jim Lemon he started only 16 of his 31 games in 1968, finishing 5-12 with a 4.98 ERA and 62 walks in 115-2/3 innings for a last-place Washington club that went 65-96. Card #595 belongs to the 1968 Topps seventh and final print series - a high number.
Phil Ortega, born Filomeno Coronada Ortega on October 7, 1939 in Gilbert, Arizona, was a 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher who appeared in 204 major league games over all or parts of ten seasons from 1960 through 1969. He graduated from Mesa High School in 1959 and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers that year as an amateur free agent for a $75,000 bonus, going straight to Triple-A Spokane. After four seasons of shuttling between Los Angeles and the minors he claimed a rotation spot in 1964. That December the Dodgers packaged him with Frank Howard, Ken McMullen and Pete Richert and sent them to the Washington Senators for Claude Osteen, John Kennedy and $100,000, with Dick Nen completing the deal on December 15. In Washington he pitched for former Dodger teammate Gil Hodges and made 94 starts across three seasons, peaking in 1967. The Senators sold his contract to the California Angels in April 1969, and he made his final big-league appearance that May 4. He finished 46-62 with a 4.43 ERA, 549 strikeouts, 20 complete games and nine shutouts in 951-2/3 innings, then pitched in the minors through 1972.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 267 | 10 | 69 | 131 | 37 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 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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Related cards
More Washington Senators cards:
- #6 American League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #31 Ed Stroud
- #49 Ed Brinkman
- #66 Casey Cox
- #96 Senators 1968 Rookie Stars
- #116 Ken McMullen
- #131 Frank Bertaina
- #149 Bob Saverine
- #188 Cap Peterson
- #209 Tim Cullen
- #231 Dave Baldwin
- #248 Fred Valentine
- #268 Bob Humphreys
- #291 Dick Lines
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #595 card?
It is card #595 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Phil Ortega of the Washington Senators.
Is 1968 Topps #595 a scarce card?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #534-598, by the checklist-card division. The last two series together (#458-598) carry only a modest premium; no short-print list exists.
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.