1969 Topps #560 Luis Tiant
About Luis Tiant
Tiant turns up four times in 1969 Topps. Three are first-series League Leaders cards recapping the 1968 American League pitching charts: #7 with Sam McDowell and Dave McNally, #9 with Denny McLain, Dave McNally and Mel Stottlemyre, and #11 with Sam McDowell and Denny McLain. His 1.60 ERA, 21 wins and 264 strikeouts put him on all three. Card #560 is a sixth-series card, and it covers a 9-20, 3.71 season over 249.2 innings that ended with his trade to Minnesota in the deal that sent Dean Chance and Graig Nettles to Cleveland. None of the four is a rookie card.
Luis Clemente Tiant Vega, born November 23, 1940 in Marianao, Cuba, was a right-handed pitcher whose 19 big-league seasons ran from 1964 to 1982, most of them with the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. The son of Negro leagues star Luis Tiant Sr., he was pitching in Mexico and Cuba when Cleveland bought his contract in 1961 on the recommendation of former Indians All-Star Bobby Avila; with Fidel Castro's Cuba closed to him, he did not see his parents for 14 years. He debuted on July 19, 1964 with an 11-strikeout, 3-0 shutout of the defending American League champion New York Yankees, beating Whitey Ford. A fractured right shoulder blade and a release by Minnesota nearly finished him in 1971, but he rebuilt his delivery in the minors into the twisting, turn-your-back windup that made El Tiante a Fenway Park institution, winning 20 or more games four times and beating Cincinnati twice in the 1975 World Series. He finished 229-172 with a 3.30 ERA, 2,416 strikeouts, 187 complete games and 49 shutouts, the most of any pitcher never elected to Cooperstown. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame took him in 1997 and the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. He died October 8, 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 439 | 13 | 83 | 204 | 59 | 32 | 22 | 26 | 0 |
| SGC | 39 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 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 Luis Tiant in this set: #7 League Leaders, #9 League Leaders, #11 League Leaders
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #7 American League 1968 ERA Leaders
- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #11 American League 1968 Strikeout Leaders
- #19 Ken Suarez
- #61 Jimmie Hall
- #91 Al Dark
- #118 Stan Williams
- #145 Max Alvis
- #176 Joe Azcue
- #201 Russ Snyder
- #220 Sam McDowell
- #244 Indians 1969 Rookie Stars
- #267 Vicente Romo
- #291 Vern Fuller
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #560 card?
It is card #560 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Luis Tiant of the Cleveland Indians.
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.