1969 Topps #557 Frank Fernandez
About Frank Fernandez
Fernandez's only 1969 card, #557, is a series-6 issue reporting the 1968 season he opened as the Yankees' catcher. On Opening Day he kissed poet Marianne Moore after her ceremonial first pitch, then homered off California's George Brunet for the only run of Mel Stottlemyre's 1-0 shutout. Platooned with lefty-hitting Jake Gibbs and gone two weeks in June for Army training, he batted .170, but 7 of his 23 hits left the yard and drove in 30 runs, more RBIs on fewer hits than any major leaguer before him.
Frank Fernandez (born April 16, 1943, in Staten Island, New York) was a catcher who played for the New York Yankees (1967-1969), Oakland Athletics (1970-1971), Washington Senators (1971) and Chicago Cubs (1971-1972). A PSAL All-Scholastic catcher at Curtis High School and a good enough basketball player to take a scholarship to Villanova, he signed with the Yankees in the fall of 1961 for a reported $25,000 bonus and spent six seasons in their farm system before debuting on September 12, 1967. In New York he caught behind Jake Gibbs and then Thurman Munson. He never hit for average, but he walked constantly and hit the ball a long way, finishing with 39 home runs, 116 RBIs, a .199 average and more career walks (164) than hits (145) across 285 games. He once held the record for the most home runs by a player with a career average under .200, a mark Jeff Mathis (53 homers, .194) has since passed. In Oakland, where teammate Sal Bando nicknamed him 'Broadway,' he became the first Athletic to hit 15 home runs in a season of fewer than 300 plate appearances. He later instructed at a Staten Island baseball camp run by his old high school coach and entered the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 386 | 13 | 106 | 202 | 40 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #557 card?
It is card #557 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Fernandez of the New York Yankees.
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.