1969 Topps #644 Chuck Hinton


About Chuck Hinton
1969 Topps #644 sits in the seventh series as a high number. The timing was tight: California traded him back to Cleveland for outfielder Lou Johnson on April 4, 1969, just before the season opened. What followed was a bench job, 94 games and only 121 at-bats that year, then a .318 stretch over 195 at-bats in 1970 and a quiet 1971. Cleveland released him in January 1972, a few months after his final big league game.
Charles Edward Hinton Jr. (1934-2013) was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, played three sports at Shaw University, and signed with the Baltimore Orioles in 1956 after hitchhiking to an open tryout at Griffith Stadium. He won back-to-back Class C batting titles at Aberdeen in 1959 and Stockton in 1960, and the new Washington club took him with the 46th pick of the December 1960 expansion draft. A right-handed hitter who eventually played every position except pitcher, Hinton was the first African American player to star for the Washington Senators, and he later spent six seasons with the Cleveland Indians and one with the California Angels. Over eleven years he batted .264 with 1,048 hits, 113 home runs and 443 RBI in 1,353 games, and he remains the last Washington Senator to bat .300. He coached Howard University baseball from 1972 to 2000, leading the Bison to their first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship, and in 1982 he helped found the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association with Brooks Robinson and two former Washington teammates. He died in Washington, D.C., in 2013 and is honored on the Washington Hall of Stars at RFK Stadium.
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 | 282 | 1 | 62 | 152 | 38 | 21 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 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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Related cards
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- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #11 American League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #644 card?
It is card #644 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chuck Hinton of the Cleveland Indians.
Why is #644 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #589-664 - the scarce end of 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.