1969 Topps #487 Denis Menke
About Denis Menke
Card #487 lands Menke in the fifth series of 1969 Topps, a Houston Astro in his breakout season. He led the club with 149 hits and 90 runs batted in, the most by any National League shortstop that year by a margin of 37, played 131 games at short, and was named to his first All-Star team as a reserve behind Don Kessinger. He finished 15th in the Most Valuable Player voting. On July 30 at Shea Stadium he hit a ninth-inning grand slam and Jim Wynn followed with another in the same inning, the first time two National League teammates had managed that in the modern era.
Denis John Menke was born July 21, 1940, on a 480-acre farm outside Bancroft, Iowa, and signed with the Milwaukee Braves in May 1958 for a bonus reported at between $125,000 and $175,000, one of the largest of the years before the amateur draft. After Pacific Coast League Rookie of the Year honors at Vancouver in 1961, he debuted on April 14, 1962, and went on to play 13 major-league seasons for the Braves, Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds, playing shortstop, second base, third base and first base. He batted .250 with 101 home runs and 606 runs batted in over 1,598 games, and was picked for the National League All-Star team as a shortstop in 1969 and 1970. In November 1971 Houston sent him to Cincinnati in the seven-player deal built around Joe Morgan, and he started at third base for the 1972 pennant winners, homering off Catfish Hunter in Game Five of the World Series and setting a Series record with 29 chances at third without an error. He played his last game July 10, 1974, managed in the minors, then coached in the majors for two decades, including eight seasons as the Philadelphia Phillies' hitting coach. He died December 1, 2020, in Tarpon Springs, Florida, at 80.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · SABR Games Project · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 195 | 3 | 20 | 95 | 51 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 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 Houston Astros cards:
- #35 Joe Morgan
- #58 Fred Gladding
- #76 Norm Miller
- #96 Denver Lemaster
- #119 Doug Rader
- #156 Astros 1969 Rookie Stars
- #186 John Edwards
- #202 Don Wilson
- #208 Donn Clendenon
- #257 Jim Ray
- #278 Gary Geiger
- #308 Wade Blasingame
- #337 Marty Martinez
- #360 Jim Wynn
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #487 card?
It is card #487 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Denis Menke of the Houston Astros.
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.