1969 Topps #518 Fred Whitfield
About Fred Whitfield
The bench work went from steady to scarce: six starts all year, with pinch-hitting the bulk of the assignment. Whitfield went 8-for-51 in that role and drew 12 walks doing it, a patient stretch for a hitter who by his own account swung at anything moving. Across 74 games and 74 at-bats he finished at .149 with one home run and 8 RBIs. That November the Reds shipped him to Triple-A Indianapolis to open roster room for younger players. Card #518 is from the sixth series.
Fred Dwight Whitfield (1938-2013) was a left-handed first baseman from Vandiver, Alabama, who played nine big-league seasons (1962-1970) for the Cardinals, Indians, Reds and Expos. Pittsburgh signed him in 1956 and sent him home from camp; Baltimore signed him that fall and released him the next spring, his shoulder ruined by a sandlot pitching stint. He taught himself to flip the ball with his wrist, and a Cardinals scout signed him on the strength of his bat in 1958. Joe Schultz, one of his managers in that farm system, hung the tag Wingy on the throwing motion and it stuck. Whitfield reached St. Louis in 1962, went to Cleveland that December, and after two seasons of platooning owned the Indians' first-base job from May 1965 on. He hit 26 home runs in 1965 and 27 in 1966, and no staff suffered more than the Yankees, who gave up 23 of his 108 career homers. He batted .253 with 356 RBIs, then went home to Alabama, working as a shipping clerk for 23 years and playing bluegrass and gospel guitar.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 284 | 5 | 69 | 153 | 30 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #518 card?
It is card #518 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Fred Whitfield of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.