1969 Topps #602 Cubs Rookie Stars - Alec Distaso / Don Young / Jim Qualls
On this card: Alec Distaso, Don Young, Jim Qualls
This is a rookie card for Distaso and for Jim Qualls.
About this card
This is one of the 52 Rookie Stars cards in the 1969 Topps set, each carrying two or three young players under a club or league title. A Rookie Stars card is a rookie card only for the players pictured who had no earlier Topps flagship card - the rookie-card answer on each card names them.
The story on this card
Distaso made the Cubs' Opening Day roster as their only rookie and made his major league debut in relief on April 20 at Montreal, throwing two scoreless innings against the expansion Expos in the game that also made him the first player to debut in a game played in Canada. Two days later at Pittsburgh he allowed two runs in relief, the only other appearance of his big league career. His card, #602 in Topps' seventh and final series, is a high number shared with fellow Cubs Don Young and Jim Qualls in a multi-player Rookie Stars design, and is a recognized rookie card. Right-hander from Los Angeles, the Cubs' top pick in the January 1967 draft, whose promising career was cut short by an elbow injury; later an LAPD detective.
Returning to the Cubs' 101-game lineup during the tumultuous 1969 pennant race, Young appears again on this high-number Rookie Stars card from print series 7, shared with teammates Alec Distaso and Jim Qualls. The card arrived the same year Young's fielding in a July loss to the Mets drew public criticism from manager Leo Durocher and teammate Ron Santo, criticism Santo later publicly retracted. Don Young was a Chicago Cubs outfielder whose brief two-season career is remembered for a defensive mishap in the 1969 pennant race that drew public criticism from his own manager and teammate.
Qualls made the Cubs' Opening Day roster in 1969 and spent the season as a center fielder and pinch hitter, appearing in 43 games while hitting .250. Card #602 is a high number from the seventh and final series, a multi-player Rookie Stars subset card shared with Cubs teammate Don Young and pitcher Alec Distaso; Qualls and Distaso are credited as rookie cards on this issue. Qualls' most memorable moment of the season came on July 9 at Shea Stadium, where his ninth-inning single off Tom Seaver broke up the Mets ace's bid for a perfect game. A switch-hitting Cubs outfielder in 1969 whose ninth-inning single at Shea Stadium that July broke up Tom Seaver's perfect game and became the defining moment of his career.
Sources: Wikipedia (Alec Distaso) · Wikipedia (Don Young) · Wikipedia (Jim Qualls) · SABR BioProject (Alec Distaso) · SABR BioProject (Jim Qualls)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 279 | 1 | 32 | 141 | 69 | 13 | 8 | 12 | 3 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 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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- #88 Rich Nye
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #602 card?
It is card #602 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Alec Distaso, Don Young and Jim Qualls. This is one of the 52 Rookie Stars cards in the 1969 Topps set, each carrying two or three young players under a club or league title. A Rookie Stars card is a rookie card only for the players pictured who had no earlier Topps flagship card - the rookie-card answer on each card names them.
Is 1969 Topps #602 a rookie card?
Yes - #602 is the rookie card of Alec Distaso and Jim Qualls. Don Young had already appeared on an earlier Topps card, so it is not his rookie card.
Why is #602 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.