1969 Topps #647 Dave Wickersham
About Dave Wickersham
1969 Topps #647 is a high number from the seventh series, one of the tougher cards in the set to track down, and it puts Wickersham with the expansion Kansas City Royals. Pittsburgh sold his contract into the new organization in October 1968, and he was on the mound for the first regular season game in Royals history, working five scoreless relief innings at Municipal Stadium on April 8, 1969. The season the card reports is 1968, and it was a brief one: 11 games, a 1-0 record and a 3.48 earned run average over 20.2 innings before a sore elbow and the arrival of a rookie sent him to the minors in June.
David Clifford Wickersham was a right-handed pitcher from Erie, Pennsylvania, who spent ten seasons in the major leagues from 1960 to 1969. The Pittsburgh Pirates signed him as an amateur free agent before the 1955 season, and he enrolled at Ohio University in his off-seasons while working through six minor league campaigns. Kansas City claimed him in the 1959 minor league draft, and he reached the Athletics in September 1960. He worked out of the bullpen before moving into the rotation, and led American League pitchers in winning percentage in 1962. Traded to Detroit in November 1963, he had his best year in 1964, going 19-12 with a 3.44 earned run average for the Tigers and drawing consideration in the American League Most Valuable Player vote. He later pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates and, in 1969, the Kansas City Royals, making him one of only four players to appear for both Kansas City major league franchises. He finished 68-57 with a 3.66 earned run average and 638 strikeouts over 283 games. A leader in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and died in 2022 at age 86.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 316 | 15 | 77 | 163 | 41 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 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 Kansas City Royals cards:
- #29 Dave Morehead
- #49 Royals 1969 Rookie Stars
- #71 Steve Whitaker
- #93 Joe Foy
- #116 Chuck Harrison
- #137 Wally Bunker
- #159 Jerry Adair
- #211 Galen Cisco
- #239 Bob Taylor
- #258 Jackie Hernandez
- #279 Roger Nelson
- #298 Dave Nicholson
- #352 Paul Schaal
- #376 Royals 1969 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #647 card?
It is card #647 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dave Wickersham of the Kansas City Royals.
Why is #647 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.