1969 Topps #661 Jim Merritt
About Jim Merritt
Card #661, a high number from the 1969 set's seventh series, pictures Merritt in a Cincinnati Reds uniform after Minnesota traded him for shortstop Leo Cardenas that November. He became the Reds' most reliable starter in 1969, going 17-9 with a 4.37 ERA over 251 innings and leading the National League with fifteen successful bunts as Cincinnati chased the division title into the season's final week.
Jim Merritt was a tall, lanky left-handed pitcher who spent eleven big-league seasons, most notably with the Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds. Signed out of high school by the Los Angeles Dodgers, he was taken by the Twins in the first-year player draft before throwing a professional pitch for Los Angeles and worked his way through their farm system, debuting in the majors in August 1965 in time to pitch in that fall's World Series. Teammates nicknamed him Bones for his rail-thin 6-foot-3 frame. He blossomed into one of the American League's stingiest control pitchers in 1967, then peaked with Cincinnati in 1970, making the All-Star team and winning twenty games as the Reds reached the World Series. An elbow injury that flared up in 1971 sapped his effectiveness, and he wound down his career with the Texas Rangers. He finished with an 81-86 record and 932 strikeouts.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 338 | 5 | 73 | 194 | 47 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 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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Related cards
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #2 National League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #26 Clay Carroll
- #70 Tommy Helms
- #81 Mel Queen
- #95 Johnny Bench
- #120 Pete Rose
- #142 Woody Woodward
- #187 Leon Wagner
- #213 Gerry Arrigo
- #234 Dave Bristol
- #259 Bill Short
- #280 Alex Johnson
- #295 Tony Perez
- #318 Jack Fisher
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #661 card?
It is card #661 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Merritt of the Cincinnati Reds.
Why is #661 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.