1969 Topps #400 Don Drysdale
About Don Drysdale
Number 400 in the 1969 set is the last Topps card of his playing career and the only one that reports the record season: 14-12 with a career-best 2.15 ERA and eight shutouts in 1968, six of them consecutive. Even that did not lead the league, since Bob Gibson threw 13 shutouts that year. By the time the fourth series reached the shelves Drysdale's shoulder was finished. He made 12 starts, pitched for the last time on August 5, 1969, and retired with a torn rotator cuff after 14 seasons in one uniform.
Don Drysdale pitched his entire 14-year career, 1956 through 1969, for the Dodgers, debuting in Brooklyn as a 19-year-old and moving west with the franchise in 1958. A sidearming right-hander known as Big D, he owned the inside corner and said so plainly: his rule was two for one, two knockdowns for every teammate of his who went down. He won the 1962 Cy Young Award, at a time when a single award covered all of baseball, after going 25-9 with 232 strikeouts, and he pitched on World Series winners in 1959, 1963 and 1965. In 1968 he threw six straight shutouts and 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, a record that stood for twenty years. He could hit, too, tying the National League record for home runs by a pitcher with seven in 1958 and again in 1965. Recurring shoulder trouble, eventually diagnosed as a torn rotator cuff, ended his career in 1969 after only 12 starts and left him with 209 wins, a 2.95 ERA, 2,486 strikeouts and 154 batters hit, a modern National League record. Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984 on his tenth ballot, he broadcast for five franchises and for NBC and ABC until his death in 1993.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,443 | 2 | 65 | 367 | 316 | 247 | 181 | 263 | 2 |
| SGC | 284 | 0 | 4 | 27 | 63 | 59 | 64 | 67 | 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 Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #12 National League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #24 Walt Alston
- #47 Paul Popovich
- #65 Willie Davis
- #94 Hank Aguirre
- #122 Ron Fairly
- #139 Andy Kosco
- #140 Jim Lefebvre
- #161 John Purdin
- #216 Don Sutton
- #241 Jim Brewer
- #266 Dodgers 1969 Rookie Stars
- #289 Bart Shirley
- #310 Tom Haller
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #400 card?
It is card #400 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.