1969 Topps #490 Matty Alou
About Matty Alou
Card #2, the National League batting leaders, and Alou's solo series-5 card #490 both report a 1968 season that ended with him second in the league at .332, behind Pete Rose's .335. He collected 185 hits in 558 at-bats over 146 games and drove in 52 runs, his most in any season to that point. Brother Felipe Alou sits third on the leaders card at .317 for Atlanta.
Mateo Rojas Alou, always Matty on his Topps cards, signed with the New York Giants in the winter of 1956-57 out of San Cristobal province, Dominican Republic, the middle Alou brother between Felipe and Jesus. He debuted with the San Francisco Giants in September 1960 and spent six seasons there as a part-time outfielder before the Pirates landed him for pitcher Joe Gibbon and infielder Ozzie Virgil on December 1, 1965. Pirates manager Harry Walker handed him a 38-ounce bat and rebuilt his stroke to stop pulling and slap the ball the other way; his average jumped from .231 to .342 and he won the 1966 National League batting title, edging his own brother Felipe. Four straight .330-plus seasons ran through 1969, with All-Star selections in 1968 and 1969. He played all 162 games in 1969 and led the majors with 698 at-bats, then a major league record and since surpassed, and 231 hits, the most by a National League batter since Joe Medwick in 1937. Alou earned a World Series ring with the 1972 Oakland Athletics, ten years after losing with the 1962 Giants. He later played three seasons in Japan for the Taiheiyo Club Lions, then managed, coached and scouted in the Dominican Republic, and entered the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2007.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 329 | 2 | 38 | 160 | 74 | 28 | 17 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 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 Matty Alou in this set: #2 League Leaders
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #2 National League 1968 Batting Leaders
- #8 National League 1968 ERA Leaders
- #36 Luke Walker
- #50 Bob Clemente
- #82 Pirates 1969 Rookie Stars
- #104 Steve Blass
- #131 Chris Cannizzaro
- #152 Tommie Sisk
- #175 Jim Bunning
- #192 Jose Pagan
- #219 Freddie Patek
- #243 Ron Kline
- #263 Jerry May
- #286 Dock Ellis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #490 card?
It is card #490 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Matty Alou of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.