1969 Topps #254 Joe Schultz
About this card
This is one of the 25 manager cards in the 1969 Topps set - one for each of the 24 clubs, with Washington twice (#294 Jim Lemon, the outgoing manager, and #650 Ted Williams, hired that February). Nine of the 25 are Hall of Famers.
About Joe Schultz
Card #254 in the 1969 Topps set's third print series pictures Joe Schultz with the Seattle Pilots, the American League expansion club he managed in its only season in Seattle. A longtime Cardinals coach through three pennant-winning seasons, Schultz took the Pilots job in the winter of 1968-69 on his friendship with general manager Marvin Milkes. His team finished last in the AL West at 64-98, and the season became famous through pitcher Jim Bouton's diary Ball Four, which captured Schultz's profane, good-humored clubhouse pep talks.
Joe Schultz was a catcher who spent parts of nine major league seasons (1939-1948) with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Browns, batting .259 with one home run over 328 at-bats. The Chicago-born son of former big leaguer Joe "Germany" Schultz, he broke in with Pittsburgh in 1939 before settling in as a backup catcher and pinch hitter for the Browns from 1943 to 1948. After his playing days he managed thirteen seasons in the minor leagues, then joined the St. Louis Cardinals as a coach in 1963, working with three National League pennant winners and two World Series champions through 1968. In 1969 he became the first and only manager of the expansion Seattle Pilots, a season immortalized in Jim Bouton's memoir Ball Four, which portrayed Schultz's colorful clubhouse sayings. The Pilots finished last in the American League West and Schultz was let go that November. He went on to coach for the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers, serving as Detroit's interim manager for the final 28 games of the 1973 season before leaving baseball.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 190 | 1 | 25 | 88 | 43 | 16 | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 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 Seattle Pilots cards:
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- #42 Tommy Harper
- #62 Chico Salmon
- #83 Mike Ferraro
- #111 Johnny Morris
- #135 Tommy Davis
- #178 Ray Oyler
- #209 Larry Haney
- #233 Steve Barber
- #285 Don Mincher
- #301 Darrell Brandon
- #322 Jose Vidal
- #346 Wayne Comer
- #377 Gary Bell
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #254 card?
It is card #254 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Schultz of the Seattle Pilots. This is one of the 25 manager cards in the 1969 Topps set - one for each of the 24 clubs, with Washington twice (#294 Jim Lemon, the outgoing manager, and #650 Ted Williams, hired that February). Nine of the 25 are Hall of Famers.
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.