1969 Topps #450 Billy Williams
About Billy Williams
Two cards in 1969, both fed by a 1968 of .288 with 30 home runs and 98 RBIs. Card #4 is the National League RBI leaders card, where Williams and teammate Ron Santo tie at 98 behind Willie McCovey's 105; his own card, #450, comes in the fifth series. The season behind them held the only three-home-run game of his career, on September 10 in an 8-1 win over the Mets, the last of the three off Nolan Ryan. A day earlier he had four hits and two homers against the Phillies, five in consecutive games to tie a major league record.
Billy Williams played left field for the Chicago Cubs from 1959 through 1974, joining Ernie Banks and Ron Santo in an everyday core that pulled a long-buried franchise back toward contention in the late 1960s. Born in Whistler, Alabama, he liked to say his signing bonus was a bus ticket and a cigar for his father. Bigotry in the Double-A Texas League drove him home in 1959 until Cubs scout Buck O'Neil came to Whistler and coaxed him back. He hit .278 with 25 home runs and 86 RBIs in 1961 and became the first Cub named National League Rookie of the Year. A six-time All-Star known as "Sweet-Swinging Billy from Whistler" for a short, effortless stroke, he won the 1972 batting title at .333 and finished MVP runner-up twice, in 1970 and 1972, both times behind Cincinnati's Johnny Bench. He played 1,117 straight games from September 1963 to September 1970, a National League record that stood until 1983. Williams closed an 18-year career, the last two as Oakland's designated hitter, with a .290 average, 2,711 hits, 426 home runs and 1,475 RBIs -- a home run total that then ranked eighth in major league history among left-handed hitters. He entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and later coached 19 seasons in the majors.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Internet Archive
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 841 | 2 | 35 | 240 | 217 | 110 | 101 | 136 | 0 |
| SGC | 157 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 31 | 25 | 35 | 38 | 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 Billy Williams in this set: #4 League Leaders
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #4 National League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #6 National League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #10 National League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #12 National League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #20 Ernie Banks
- #43 Joe Niekro
- #63 Jim Hickman
- #88 Rich Nye
- #115 Bill Hands
- #147 Leo Durocher
- #171 Glenn Beckert
- #198 Willie Smith
- #225 Don Kessinger
- #247 Gene Oliver
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #450 card?
It is card #450 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs.
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.