1969 Topps #520 Bob Veale
About Bob Veale
#8 is the 1968 National League earned run average leaders card, and Veale's 2.05 ranks third behind Bob Gibson's 1.12 and Bobby Bolin's 1.99 - striking company for a pitcher who went 13-14 that summer while an elbow problem forced him to shorten his motion and pitch more to contact. #520, from the sixth series, is his own card for the same Year of the Pitcher season: 171 strikeouts in 245 1/3 innings.
Robert Andrew Veale was a 6-foot-6, bespectacled left-hander who threw as hard as anyone in the National League and anchored the Pittsburgh Pirates' staff from 1962 through 1972. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 28, 1935, he worked the concession stand at Rickwood Field as a boy and pitched batting practice for the Birmingham Black Barons; his father had pitched for the Homestead Grays. Veale went to Benedictine College on an athletic scholarship and signed with Pittsburgh as an amateur free agent in 1958. A league-leading 208 strikeouts for Columbus of the International League in 1961 earned him the call, and he debuted on April 16, 1962. Wild as well as overpowering, he led the National League in walks four times, led it with 250 strikeouts in 1964, and set a career high of 276 in 1965 that is still the Pirates' modern-era record. A two-time All-Star, he finished 120-95 with a 3.07 ERA and 1,703 strikeouts, and won a ring with the 1971 world champion Pirates. Released by Pittsburgh in May 1972, he signed with Boston that September and pitched there through 1974, then taught pitching in the Atlanta and New York farm systems. He entered the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and died in Birmingham on January 3, 2025, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (3)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 394 | 5 | 94 | 221 | 45 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 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 Bob Veale in this set: #8 League Leaders
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #2 National League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #8 National League 1968 ERA Leaders
- #36 Luke Walker
- #50 Bob Clemente
- #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
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #520 card?
It is card #520 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Veale of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.