1969 Topps #397 Chuck Dobson
About Chuck Dobson
Card #397 is a series-four base issue reporting Dobson's 1968, the Athletics' first season in Oakland: 12-14 with a 3.00 ERA and 168 strikeouts over 225 and a third innings, both the ERA and the strikeout total career bests. He completed 11 starts and threw three shutouts. Inside ten days that summer he went the distance in an 11-inning game and again in a 12-inning game, fanning 13 in the second. A broken ankle from a collision with a first baseman closed out his year.
Charles Thomas Dobson was a 6-foot-4 right-hander born January 10, 1944, in Kansas City, Missouri. He pitched two seasons at the University of Kansas under coach Floyd Temple and was the number one pitcher on the United States team at the 1964 Summer Games in Japan, where baseball was a demonstration sport. The Kansas City Athletics signed him that summer for $25,000. Dobson spent his whole career in the Athletics organization, following the franchise from Kansas City to Oakland, apart from a closing stretch with the California Angels in 1974 and 1975. He won 15, 16 and 15 games from 1969 through 1971; the 16-win 1970 brought five shutouts, tied with Jim Palmer and Gaylord Perry for the major league lead, and 1971 ended with Oakland's first American League West title. Elbow surgery that offseason removed a piece of bone and cost him all of 1972; he finished 74-69 with a 3.78 ERA and 758 strikeouts in nine seasons. In spring 1971 he became the first active major leaguer to admit taking amphetamines on game days, then retracted it under pressure from owner Charlie Finley and the league office. He got sober in 1985, worked more than a decade as an addiction counselor, and died November 30, 2021, in Kansas City at age 77.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 218 | 3 | 39 | 120 | 37 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #397 card?
It is card #397 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chuck Dobson of the Oakland Athletics.
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.