1969 Topps #144 Bob Hendley
About Bob Hendley
Hendley's last Topps card, #144 in the second series, still lists him with the Mets and is not a rookie card, though he had not pitched in the majors since September 3, 1967, a one-inning relief turn at Wrigley Field. New York sent him to Triple-A for 1968, where he pitched for Jacksonville of the International League on a club that won the league playoff. A third elbow operation followed that season, and general manager Johnny Murphy said he had never talked to a pitcher so enthusiastic about surgery. Hendley threw well for Tidewater in 1969, including back-to-back complete games that spring, but the recall never came and he retired after the year.
Bob Hendley (born Charles Robert Hendley, April 30, 1939, in Macon, Georgia) turned down a baseball and basketball scholarship from the University of Georgia to sign with the Milwaukee Braves on August 17, 1957, out of Lanier High School, where he had thrown three no-hitters. After a 16-win, 147-strikeout 1960 season for Triple-A Louisville, that year's Junior World Series champion, the left-hander reached the majors on June 23, 1961. Over seven seasons with the Braves, Giants, Cubs and Mets he went 48-52 with a 3.97 ERA and 522 strikeouts in 216 games, 126 of them starts, battling elbow trouble that eventually required three operations. He is remembered above all for September 9, 1965, when he held the Dodgers to one hit and an unearned run while losing 1-0 to Sandy Koufax's perfect game, a contest SABR members voted the greatest ever pitched; he beat Koufax in a rematch five days later. Hendley left the game after 1969, earned a Mercer University degree in the off-seasons, coached high school baseball in Georgia across three decades, shared the 2014 Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award with Koufax and Vin Scully, and entered the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 242 | 0 | 27 | 125 | 61 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #144 card?
It is card #144 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Hendley of the New York Mets.
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.