1968 Topps #290 Willie McCovey
About Willie McCovey
Two 1968 cards carry McCovey's 1967. Card 5, from the first series, is the home run leaders card for the National League, his 31 homers set beside Hank Aaron, Jim Wynn and Ron Santo, while card 290 in the fourth series is his own. Sore knees cost him time all year and held him to 135 games, but he still drove in 91 runs and hit .276, and it was his third straight season of 30 or more home runs. The Giants finished second for the third year running.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, on January 10, 1938, McCovey signed with the New York Giants in 1955 out of a Florida tryout camp. He reached the majors on July 30, 1959, four-for-four with two triples off Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, and finished at .354 with 13 home runs in 52 games to win National League Rookie of the Year. Six feet four, he was "Stretch" for the reach he gave the Giants at first base, and he grew into a dead-pull line-drive hitter who drew shifts and record intentional walks. He played 19 seasons for San Francisco, with San Diego and Oakland in between. He led the National League in home runs in 1963, 1968 and 1969 and in runs batted in in 1968 and 1969, and his 1969 line of 45 homers, 126 RBI and a .320 average brought the Most Valuable Player award. He made six All-Star teams and homered twice to win the 1969 All-Star Game MVP. His only World Series, in 1962, ended with his ninth-inning liner in the glove of Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson, tying and winning runs stranded. He retired in 1980 with 521 home runs, entered the Hall of Fame in 1986 on the first ballot, and gave his name to the cove beyond the Giants' right-field wall.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 2,188 | 18 | 172 | 598 | 389 | 343 | 213 | 455 | 0 |
| SGC | 486 | 0 | 8 | 61 | 103 | 92 | 99 | 118 | 5 |
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 Willie McCovey in this set: #5 League Leaders
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #5 National League 1967 Home Run Leaders
- #9 National League 1967 Pitching Leaders
- #11 National League 1967 Strikeout Leaders
- #32 Joe Gibbon
- #50 Willie Mays
- #73 Jim Hart
- #85 Gaylord Perry
- #104 Dick Dietz
- #126 Bobby Etheridge
- #147 Frank Linzy
- #169 Bob Bolin
- #185 Tom Haller
- #205 Juan Marichal
- #223 Ollie Brown
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1968 Topps #290 card?
It is card #290 of the 598-card 1968 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants.
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.