1969 Topps #431 Bill Freehan
About this card
Cards #416-435 are the twenty Sporting News All-Stars, ten from each league - a catcher, the four infielders, three outfielders and two pitchers - with the National and American League picks alternating from #416; the run straddles the fourth and fifth series, and the backs assemble into two puzzle photos.
About Bill Freehan
Freehan's two 1969 cards, base #390 in series 4 and Sporting News All-Star #431 in series 5, look back on the championship year. He played 155 games in 1968 and caught 138 of them, batting .263 with career highs of 25 home runs, 84 RBI and 73 runs scored, and was hit by 24 pitches, the most in the American League since 1911. He finished second in the MVP voting behind Denny McLain. In the World Series he caught all seven games, blocked the plate to tag Lou Brock out in Game Five and squeezed Tim McCarver's foul popup for the final out.
Bill Freehan was born November 29, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan. At the University of Michigan he caught and played end and linebacker in football, batting an all-time Big Ten record .585 as a sophomore in 1961 and winning All-America honors as a catcher before signing with his hometown Tigers. He debuted that September and spent his entire 15-year career (1961, 1963-1976) behind the plate for Detroit, making 11 All-Star teams and winning five straight Gold Gloves from 1965 through 1969. He held the major league record for a catcher's career fielding percentage (.9933) until 2002 and the career putouts mark (9,941) into the late 1980s. He was Detroit's catcher for the 1968 championship and finished runner-up in that season's AL MVP voting. Freehan later coached Michigan's baseball team from 1989 to 1995 and instructed Tigers catchers; he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. He died August 19, 2021, at 79, of Alzheimer's disease.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 274 | 4 | 32 | 119 | 63 | 29 | 9 | 17 | 1 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 Bill Freehan in this set: #390
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #3 American League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #5 American League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #11 American League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #13 Mickey Stanley
- #40 Mayo Smith
- #80 Norm Cash
- #101 Daryl Patterson
- #126 Dick Tracewski
- #150 Denny McLain
- #163 World Series Game #2 - Tiger Homers Deck the Cards
- #166 World Series Game #5 - Kaline's Key Hit Sparks Tiger Rally
- #167 World Series Game #6 - Tiger 10-Run Inning Ties Mark
- #168 World Series Game #7 - Lolich Series Hero Outduels Gibson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #431 card?
It is card #431 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers. Cards #416-435 are the twenty Sporting News All-Stars, ten from each league - a catcher, the four infielders, three outfielders and two pitchers - with the National and American League picks alternating from #416; the run straddles the fourth and fifth series, and the backs assemble into two puzzle photos.
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.