1968 Topps #47 Ralph Houk
About this card
This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1968 Topps set, numbered among the regular cards rather than grouped as a subset.
About Ralph Houk
The 1968 club finished 83-79, fifth in the American League and above .500 for the first time since 1964, twenty games behind the champion Tigers. It came with a strange footnote: the Yankees batted .214 as a team, the lowest full-season mark of the live-ball era, and still won 83 games, because Mel Stottlemyre won 21 and Stan Bahnsen 17. It was also Mickey Mantle's last season; he announced his retirement the following spring. Card #47 is a low number from Topps' first series, catching Houk midway through the job of rebuilding a team that had finished last two years earlier.
Ralph George Houk was born August 9, 1919, in Lawrence, Kansas, and was catching his way up through the New York Yankees farm system when World War II interrupted him. He served with the 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the 9th Armored Division, fought at Bastogne and through the Battle of the Bulge, and came home with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and the rank of Major that became his baseball nickname. Back in the Bronx, he spent eight seasons from 1947 through 1954 as a second- and third-string catcher behind Yogi Berra, getting into only 91 games while batting .272. He managed the Yankees' Triple-A Denver Bears, returned as Casey Stengel's first-base coach, and succeeded Stengel as manager for 1961. Three straight pennants and back-to-back World Series titles followed, then a move upstairs to general manager, a second term in the dugout from 1966 through 1973, and closing stints with Detroit and Boston. Cooperstown never called, but the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame counts him among its members.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 530 | 9 | 132 | 276 | 45 | 31 | 19 | 18 | 0 |
| SGC | 33 | 1 | 5 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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 New York Yankees cards:
- #29 Joe Verbanic
- #69 Tom Tresh
- #89 Jake Gibbs
- #105 Al Downing
- #120 Mel Stottlemyre
- #138 Ruben Amaro
- #195 Joe Pepitone
- #214 Yankees 1968 Rookie Stars
- #234 Bill Monbouquette
- #246 Fritz Peterson
- #263 Horace Clarke
- #280 Mickey Mantle
- #299 Gene Michael
- #316 Steve Barber
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #47 card?
It is card #47 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ralph Houk of the New York Yankees. This is one of the twenty manager cards in the 1968 Topps set, numbered among the regular cards rather than grouped as a subset.
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.