1968 Topps #245 Tony Gonzalez
About Tony Gonzalez
Topps opened the 1968 set with Gonzalez on card #1, "National League 1967 Batting Leaders," where his .339 stands second behind Roberto Clemente's .357, with Matty Alou alongside them. His own series-3 card #245 reports that same season, the best of his career: 172 hits, 74 runs, 59 RBI and nine home runs in 149 games for a Phillies club that went 82-80 and finished fifth.
Andres Antonio "Tony" Gonzalez was a Cuban-born outfielder who spent nine of his twelve big-league seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and was their primary center fielder for five of them. He built his strength hoisting 250-pound sacks of sugar during Cuba's cane season, signed with Cincinnati for ten dollars and a bus ticket to Havana, and reached the majors in 1960. The 5-foot-9 left-handed hitter was called "Little Dynamite" for the way the ball came off his bat. In 1962 he became the first everyday big-league center fielder to play an errorless season, and in 1967 he batted .339, second in the National League to Roberto Clemente, yet he was never an All-Star. Repeated beanings troubled his eyes and brought him the first big-league batting helmet with a pre-molded ear flap, in 1964. Dealt to Atlanta in June 1969, he hit .357 in that year's Championship Series with a home run off Tom Seaver. His major-league line closed at 1,485 hits and a .286 average; he played on in Mexico and Japan in 1972, then coached in the Phillies' and Angels' farm systems. The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame, run in exile in Miami, inducted him in 1985. He died July 2, 2021, at 84.
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 | 279 | 6 | 70 | 134 | 34 | 17 | 10 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 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 Tony Gonzalez in this set: #1 League Leaders
Team card: #477 Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #1 National League 1967 Batting Leaders
- #7 National League 1967 ERA Leaders
- #9 National League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #11 National League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #17 Dick Hall
- #39 Cookie Rojas
- #59 Don Lock
- #81 Larry Jackson
- #98 Gary Sutherland
- #112 Woody Fryman
- #122 Gene Mauch
- #139 Chris Short
- #173 John Boozer
- #190 Bill White
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #245 card?
It is card #245 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tony Gonzalez of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.