1968 Topps #115 Sam McDowell
About Sam McDowell
In the Year of the Pitcher, McDowell posted a career-best 1.81 ERA and still finished second on his own staff, behind Luis Tiant's 1.60. Cleveland scored 2.84 runs a game for him, which is how a league-leading 283-strikeout season ended up 15-14. On May 1 he fanned 16 Athletics and on May 6 he fanned 14 Yankees, 30 in back-to-back starts, breaking Bob Feller's American League record of 28. He turns up on card #12, the first-series League Leaders strikeout card shared with Jim Lonborg and Dean Chance, and on #115, his second-series regular card.
Sam McDowell, born September 21, 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was a hard-throwing left-handed pitcher who spent fifteen major league seasons, 1961 through 1975, mostly with the Cleveland Indians. Rated the country's top schoolboy prospect out of Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School, he signed with Cleveland in 1960 for a $75,000 bonus and reached the majors six days before his 19th birthday. A six-time All-Star, he led the American League in strikeouts five times and won the 1965 ERA title, and in 1970 he topped 300 innings and 300 strikeouts while going 20-12, earning The Sporting News AL Pitcher of the Year award. Control trouble shadowed all of it - he led the league in walks five times as well - and injuries and alcoholism wore down the back end of his career through stops with the Giants, Yankees and Pirates. He retired with a 141-134 record, a 3.17 ERA and 2,453 strikeouts. He got sober in the early 1980s, earned associate degrees in sports psychology and addiction at the University of Pittsburgh, and later worked as an addiction counselor for the Rangers and Blue Jays. He is a member of the Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame, the franchise's own team hall.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 343 | 8 | 73 | 185 | 50 | 12 | 6 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 29 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 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 Sam McDowell in this set: #12 League Leaders
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
- #176 Bob Allen
- #197 Larry Brown
- #218 Ken Suarez
- #237 Alvin Dark
- #269 Bob Tiefenauer
- #295 Sonny Siebert
- #318 Chico Salmon
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #115 card?
It is card #115 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sam McDowell of the Cleveland Indians.
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.