1969 Topps #543 Fred Newman
About Fred Newman
Newman's last Topps card, and an odd one. It puts him with the Red Sox, the organization that first signed him out of high school, but he never threw a pitch for Boston, or for the Louisville farm club the card back assigns him to. Three games in late July and early August 1967 were his last in the majors; he spent the rest of that year and all of 1968 in Double-A and Triple-A, trying to work around the arm. Boston got him from California in March 1969 for cash and a player to be named later, and he retired without appearing.
Frederick William Newman was a right-handed pitcher born in Boston on February 21, 1942. The Red Sox signed him out of nearby Brookline High School in 1960, then left the 18-year-old off their protected list that winter, and the expansion Los Angeles Angels took him with the 53rd pick of the December 1960 expansion draft. A 15-1, 1.85 season for Class C San Jose in 1962 pushed him to Triple-A and then to the Angels that September. A rough 1-5 trial in 1963 gave way to the two years that made him: 13-10 with a 2.75 ERA in 1964, then 14-16 with a 2.93 ERA and 260.2 innings in 1965, 27 wins and 17 complete games across the pair. Arm trouble arrived in 1966 and never left. He pitched three games in 1967, the last on August 5, spent that year and 1968 shuttling through the Angels' farm system, and retired. Six seasons, all with the Angels: 33-39, 3.41, 254 strikeouts in 610 innings. He went home to Brookline and became a firefighter. Newman died in Framingham, Massachusetts, on June 24, 1987, after an automobile accident in nearby Holliston. He was 45.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · The Baseball Cube
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 209 | 9 | 45 | 96 | 43 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 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 #543 card?
It is card #543 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Fred Newman of the Boston Red Sox.
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.