1969 Topps #436 Gene Alley
About Gene Alley
Limited to 82 games by injury in 1969, Alley still batted .246 with eight home runs and put together a 21-game hitting streak in August, while maintaining a .977 fielding percentage at shortstop. He spent 29 days on the disabled list that season as arm and knee trouble began mounting. His 1969 Topps #436, from the fifth print series, is a solo card.
Leonard Eugene Alley, born July 10, 1940 in Richmond, Virginia, was a shortstop who spent his entire eleven-season major league career (1963-1973) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After several years bouncing among third base, second base and the outfield in the minors while nursing a throwing-arm problem, he settled in at shortstop and paired with Bill Mazeroski to anchor one of the game's best double-play combinations. Alley won Gold Glove Awards in 1966 and 1967, was named to The Sporting News All-Star team both years, and earned back-to-back National League All-Star selections in 1967 and 1968. His signature season came in 1966, when he hit a career-high .299 and helped the Pirates set a National League record with 215 double plays. Alley was part of Pittsburgh's three straight NL East division titles from 1970-1972 and was the Pirates' regular shortstop during their 1971 World Series championship season, though a knee injury limited him to just a handful of games that postseason. Shoulder and knee problems shortened his career, and he retired after the 1973 season. He earned the nickname Alley Oop after a standout 1960 season in the Northern League. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, though he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 247 | 3 | 38 | 118 | 57 | 22 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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
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- #82 Pirates 1969 Rookie Stars
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- #152 Tommie Sisk
- #175 Jim Bunning
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #436 card?
It is card #436 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gene Alley of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.