1969 Topps #98 Dave Giusti
About Dave Giusti
Card 98 sits in the opening series and lists Giusti with San Diego, a club he never threw a pitch for. St. Louis had acquired him from Houston in October 1968 and then left him unprotected, and the expansion Padres took him in the draft three days after the trade. Seven weeks later, on December 3, San Diego sent him back to the Cardinals for four players, among them Ed Spiezio, who would hit the first home run in Padres history. Giusti lost the fifth starter's job to Mike Torrez in spring training and a back injury cost him time; he finished 3-7 with a 3.61 ERA in 22 games.
Dave Giusti was a right-handed pitcher from Seneca Falls, New York who played fifteen major league seasons between 1962 and 1977. A three-sport star at North Syracuse High School, he pitched and played basketball at Syracuse University, then signed with the expansion Houston Colt .45's in June 1961 as one of the club's first bonus babies. He spent most of the 1960s in Houston's rotation until an October 1968 trade sent him to St. Louis, and a year later the Cardinals dealt him to Pittsburgh. The Pirates turned him into a relief pitcher in 1970, and his palmball made him the closer for a club that won five National League East titles in six seasons, including the 1971 World Series, where he saved Game Four. He led the National League with 30 saves in 1971 and took The Sporting News reliever of the year award; his lone All-Star selection came in 1973. He finished with Oakland and the Chicago Cubs in 1977, retiring at 100-93 with 145 saves and a 3.60 ERA. A member of the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, Giusti later worked in corporate sales for American Express and lived outside Pittsburgh until his death in January 2026.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 225 | 2 | 32 | 127 | 45 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| SGC | 7 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 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
More San Diego Padres cards:
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- #38 Zoilo Versalles
- #74 Preston Gomez
- #129 Bill McCool
- #149 Ollie Brown
- #184 Roberto Pena
- #197 Dick Selma
- #223 Tom Dukes
- #249 Ed Spiezio
- #271 Larry Stahl
- #304 Padres 1969 Rookie Stars
- #333 Ivan Murrell
- #359 Dick Kelley
- #387 Bobby Klaus
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #98 card?
It is card #98 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dave Giusti of the San Diego Padres.
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.