1969 Topps #63 Jim Hickman
About Jim Hickman
First-series card #63 is Hickman's first Topps card as a Cub and his first since 1967, Topps having skipped him in 1968. Chicago got him from Los Angeles in a four-player swap in April 1968, the deal that sent reliever Phil Regan the same way, and recalled him from Tacoma on May 24 after he batted .351 there. The back's 1968 line is a platoon man's: .223 with five home runs and 23 RBI in 75 games. He answered while the card was still current, reaching 21 home runs and 54 RBI in 1969 - 10 homers and 25 RBI of it in an August that lifted his average from .206 to .242 and, in Leo Durocher's telling, kept the Cubs from disaster.
James Lucius Hickman, an outfielder and first baseman known as "Gentleman Jim," was born May 10, 1937, in Henning, Tennessee, and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1956 season. Six years in their farm system later, the expansion New York Mets claimed him with their 18th selection in the October 10, 1961, expansion draft, out of the $50,000 price tier. He spent five seasons in New York before trades took him to Los Angeles and then, in April 1968, to Chicago. At 33 he put together his career year for the 1970 Cubs: .315 with 32 home runs and 115 RBI, his only All-Star selection, and The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year award, the first won by a Cub. His 12th-inning single at Riverfront Stadium scored Pete Rose with the winning run in that All-Star Game. St. Louis waived him in July 1974, closing a 13-year career at .252 with 159 home runs and 560 RBI in 1,421 games. He spent two decades as a Cincinnati Reds minor-league hitting instructor, entered the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died June 25, 2016, in Jackson, Tennessee.
Sources: Wikipedia · 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 | 242 | 2 | 32 | 109 | 58 | 28 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 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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Related cards
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #4 National League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #6 National League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #10 National League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #12 National League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #20 Ernie Banks
- #43 Joe Niekro
- #88 Rich Nye
- #115 Bill Hands
- #147 Leo Durocher
- #171 Glenn Beckert
- #198 Willie Smith
- #225 Don Kessinger
- #247 Gene Oliver
- #268 Al Spangler
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #63 card?
It is card #63 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Hickman of the Chicago Cubs.
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.