1969 Topps #5 American League 1968 Home Run Leaders - Frank Howard / Willie Horton / Ken Harrelson
On this card: Frank Howard, Willie Horton, Ken Harrelson
About this card
Cards #1-12 are the League Leaders subset: six categories from the 1968 season - batting average, RBI, home runs, ERA, pitching (wins) and strikeouts - with the American League card first and the National League card second in each pair, and the top three men on each card (#9 names four, after a tie for third in American League wins).
The story on this card
Card 5 recaps the 1968 American League home run race: Frank Howard of the Senators led with 44, ahead of Detroit's Willie Horton (36) and Boston's Ken Harrelson (35). Howard's power display included a May stretch of 10 home runs in 20 at-bats, part of a season that brought the first of his four straight All-Star selections. Horton's 36 homers and .285 average helped Detroit steamroll to the pennant and World Series title and left him fourth in the MVP vote. Harrelson, playing for a Red Sox club still built around the pennant run he had joined the previous August, led the majors in RBI with 109. The card lists each slugger with his 1968 club: Washington for Howard, Detroit for Horton, Boston for Harrelson.
Frank Howard - the 6-foot-7 "Capital Punisher": 1960 NL Rookie of the Year with the Dodgers, then the Washington Senators' one-man box office, twice an American League home run champion and a four-time All-Star. Willie Horton - Detroit's hometown slugger, Willie the Wonder combined raw power with a Game 5 throw that helped turn the 1968 World Series during an eighteen-year, 325-homer career. Ken Harrelson - nine-season first baseman/outfielder nicknamed "Hawk," who led the American League in RBI in 1968 with Boston after a headline-making split from Kansas City owner Charlie Finley; later a long-running White Sox broadcaster and early popularizer of the batting glove.
Sources: Wikipedia (Frank Howard) · Wikipedia (Willie Horton) · Wikipedia (Ken Harrelson) · SABR BioProject (Frank Howard) · SABR BioProject (Ken Harrelson) · Baseball Almanac (Frank Howard)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 431 | 4 | 77 | 166 | 91 | 52 | 19 | 21 | 1 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 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.
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Related cards
More Washington Senators cards:
- #3 American League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #27 Bernie Allen
- #48 Brant Alyea
- #84 Bob Humphreys
- #106 Jim Hannan
- #132 Dave Baldwin
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #3 American League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #11 American League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #13 Mickey Stanley
- #40 Mayo Smith
- #80 Norm Cash
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #1 American League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #3 American League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #21 Jose Santiago
- #52 Mike Andrews
- #89 Russ Gibson
- #109 Jim Lonborg
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #5 card?
It is card #5 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Howard, Willie Horton and Ken Harrelson. Cards #1-12 are the League Leaders subset: six categories from the 1968 season - batting average, RBI, home runs, ERA, pitching (wins) and strikeouts - with the American League card first and the National League card second in each pair, and the top three men on each card (#9 names four, after a tie for third in American League wins).
How many cards are in the 1969 Topps Baseball set?
664 cards, tracked as 696 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 664 with none skipped and no printed number shared by two cards; 32 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately, 23 of them the yellow- and white-letter name pairs of #440-511.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, 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.