1969 Topps #235 Jim Hunter
About Jim Hunter
Number 235 falls in the third series; his rookie card is the 1965 Rookie Stars issue. It follows the 1968 season, when Hunter went 13-13 with a 3.35 ERA over 234 innings and, on May 8 in Oakland, retired all 27 Minnesota Twins he faced for the American League's first perfect game in 46 years. He struck out 11 and drove in three runs himself in the 4-0 win.
James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter was a right-handed pitcher who spent 1965-1974 with the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics and 1975-1979 with the New York Yankees, going 224-166 with a 3.26 ERA and 2,012 strikeouts. Owner Charlie Finley signed him out of Perquimans County High School in Hertford, North Carolina, on June 8, 1964, months after a hunting accident cost him a toe; Finley hung the nickname "Catfish" on him during a phone call at the time of that signing. Apart from a fall instructional-league stint, Hunter never pitched in the minor leagues, and he debuted for Kansas City in May 1965 at 19. He anchored Oakland's three straight World Series titles from 1972 through 1974, won 20 or more games in five consecutive seasons from 1971 through 1975, and took the 1974 American League Cy Young Award after going 25-12 with a league-best 2.49 ERA. On May 8, 1968, he threw a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins. After Finley breached his contract, an arbitrator declared him a free agent in December 1974; his five-year Yankees deal made him baseball's first big-money free agent, and New York won the World Series in 1977 and 1978. Arm trouble ended his career after 1979. He entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and died of ALS in 1999.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 882 | 1 | 46 | 210 | 216 | 157 | 100 | 147 | 5 |
| SGC | 162 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 34 | 36 | 34 | 45 | 2 |
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 Oakland Athletics cards:
- #1 American League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #23 Lew Krausse
- #44 Danny Cater
- #68 Dave Duncan
- #105 Rick Monday
- #124 Hank Bauer
- #143 Joe Nossek
- #195 John Odom
- #217 John Donaldson
- #260 Reggie Jackson
- #281 Ted Kubiak
- #302 Jim Pagliaroni
- #334 Phil Roof
- #358 Athletics 1969 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #235 card?
It is card #235 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Hunter of the Oakland Athletics.
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.