1969 Topps #645 George Brunet
About George Brunet
Brunet's lone 1969 card, #645, belongs to the scarce seventh series of 589 through 664, the batch Topps shipped late in what was then the largest set it had ever issued at 664 cards. Behind it is one more workhorse summer: 245.1 innings in 39 games for California in 1968, a 2.86 ERA, five shutouts and 132 strikeouts, yet a 13-17 record that led the league in losses again. The Angels sold him to the expansion Seattle Pilots that July 31.
George Stuart Brunet, a left-handed pitcher born June 8, 1935, in Houghton, Michigan, signed with Detroit for $500 after a Briggs Stadium tryout in the fall of his senior year at Calumet High School and reached the majors with the Kansas City Athletics in September 1956. Over parts of 15 seasons through 1971 he also pitched for the Milwaukee Braves, Houston Colt .45's, Baltimore Orioles, Los Angeles and California Angels, Seattle Pilots, Washington Senators, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals, finishing 69-93 with a 3.62 ERA and 921 strikeouts in 324 games. His prime came in the Angels rotation from 1965 through 1968, when he twice led the American League in losses, 19 in 1967 and 17 in 1968, behind ERAs of 3.31 and 2.86. Brunet then went to Mexico and stayed, pitching there from 1973 through 1989 and drawing the nickname El Viejo, the Old Man, for working into his fifties. He threw a no-hitter at 42, set a Mexican League record with 55 shutouts, and closed a professional career of roughly 36 years. He died of a heart attack on October 25, 1991, in Poza Rica, Veracruz, and was inducted into the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · Cardboard Connection
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 362 | 8 | 68 | 220 | 46 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #645 card?
It is card #645 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing George Brunet of the California Angels.
Why is #645 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh and last print series, #589-664 - the scarce end of the set.
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.