1969 Topps #50 Bob Clemente
The front reads Bob Clemente; Topps used that shortened form through 1969.
About Bob Clemente
His lone 1969 card follows a bruised 1968. A fall at home before spring training damaged his right shoulder; he hit .291 with 18 home runs and 57 runs batted in over 132 games, the decade's one season he finished under .300, and lost his All-Star place for the first time in nine years. He still batted .347 after the break and took an eighth straight Gold Glove. Card #50 again reads Bob on the front.
Roberto Clemente played all eighteen of his major league seasons in right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates, reaching them in the November 1954 Rule 5 draft after the Dodgers left their bonus signing unprotected at Triple-A Montreal. Born August 18, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he debuted at twenty and grew into the era's most complete outfielder: four National League batting titles in 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1967, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1961 through 1972 behind a famous throwing arm, and the 1966 Most Valuable Player Award, for which the writers named him on all twenty ballots. He was chosen for fifteen All-Star Games and retired at .317 with 240 home runs and 1,305 runs batted in. Pittsburgh won the 1960 World Series with him, and at thirty-seven he carried the 1971 club past Baltimore, hitting .414 and taking Series MVP honors. His 3,000th hit, a double off Jon Matlack on September 30, 1972, closed his last regular season and made him the eleventh man to reach that mark. On December 31, 1972 a cargo plane he had chartered to fly earthquake relief to Nicaragua went down off the Puerto Rican coast, and his body was never recovered. A special election in 1973 waived the five-year wait and made him the first Latino player enshrined at Cooperstown.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · SABR (1) · SABR (2) · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 8,612 | 8 | 153 | 857 | 1,142 | 1,587 | 1,447 | 3,398 | 20 |
| SGC | 3,285 | 0 | 12 | 112 | 273 | 472 | 782 | 1,590 | 44 |
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 Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #2 National League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #8 National League 1968 ERA Leaders
- #36 Luke Walker
- #82 Pirates 1969 Rookie Stars
- #104 Steve Blass
- #131 Chris Cannizzaro
- #152 Tommie Sisk
- #175 Jim Bunning
- #192 Jose Pagan
- #219 Freddie Patek
- #243 Ron Kline
- #263 Jerry May
- #286 Dock Ellis
- #307 Gary Kolb
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #50 card?
It is card #50 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Why is #50 printed "Bob Clemente"?
The front reads "Bob Clemente" - the name Topps printed for Roberto Clemente - so the card is listed here as printed, with Roberto Clemente as the name it is also known by.
What are the key cards in the 1969 Topps set?
The #500 Mickey Mantle - his last Topps card as an active player, printed with his name in yellow letters and, far scarcer, in white letters - is the grail of the set, and the #260 Reggie Jackson rookie card is its headline rookie. The other major keys are #50 Bob Clemente (printed "Bob" on the front), #95 Johnny Bench, #100 Hank Aaron, #120 Pete Rose, #190 Willie Mays, #480 Tom Seaver, #533 Nolan Ryan (his first solo card; the rookie is 1968 #177) and #597 AL Rookie Stars with Rollie Fingers. The high numbers (#589-664) are the hardest run in the set.
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.