1969 Topps #470 Mel Stottlemyre
About Mel Stottlemyre
Two cards again. #9 is a first-series League Leaders card grouping him with Denny McLain, Dave McNally and Luis Tiant off the 1968 American League win column, where his 21 victories put him in that company. #470, from the fifth series, comes two ways: last name printed in yellow (470a) and in white (470b), both collected separately. The season it went out in brought his third 20-win year, 20-14 with a 2.82 ERA across 303 innings and a career-high 24 complete games.
Mel Stottlemyre (1941-2019) spent his entire 11-year major-league career with the New York Yankees. Born in Hazleton, Missouri and raised in the farm town of Mabton, Washington, he was signed for no bonus out of Yakima Valley Junior College by Yankees scout Eddie Taylor in 1961, and he was still pitching for Triple-A Richmond when New York called him up in August 1964 to cover for the injured Whitey Ford. He went 9-3 the rest of the way, helped the club to its fifth straight American League pennant, and started three games against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, beating Bob Gibson in Game Two before losing the decisive Game Seven. An overhand sinkerballer who kept the ball at the knees, he became the ace of a Yankees team that fell into the second division for the first time since 1925. He won 20 games three times, was named to five All-Star squads, and threw 40 shutouts, the same career total as Sandy Koufax. Shoulder tendinitis dogged him from 1967 onward, and a torn rotator cuff ended his pitching at age 32 in 1974; the Yankees released him before the 1975 season. He retired 164-139 with a 2.97 ERA, then coached 23 seasons in the majors and won five World Series rings with the Mets and Yankees.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #470 are tracked individually: 470a - Last Name In Yellow and 470b - Last Name In White. The difference is on the front of the card (name color).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry and the Trading Card Database; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 470a - Last Name In Yellow | |||||||||
| PSA | 447 | 2 | 45 | 179 | 105 | 57 | 27 | 32 | 0 |
| SGC | 37 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| 470b - Last Name In White | |||||||||
| PSA | 249 | 0 | 5 | 50 | 49 | 60 | 39 | 45 | 1 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation.
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Related cards
More Mel Stottlemyre in this set: #9 League Leaders
More New York Yankees cards:
- #9 American League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #25 Roy White
- #46 Fritz Peterson
- #69 Steve Hamilton
- #87 Horace Clarke
- #114 Yankees 1969 Rookie Stars
- #191 Lindy McDaniel
- #212 Tom Tresh
- #237 Bobby Cox
- #262 Mike Kekich
- #292 Al Downing
- #313 Bill Robinson
- #332 Fred Talbot
- #354 Nate Oliver
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #470 card?
It is card #470 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mel Stottlemyre of the New York Yankees.
Does 1969 Topps #470 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 470a - Last Name In Yellow ("Stottlemyre" prints in yellow letters on the front - the common state of this fifth-series card) and 470b - Last Name In White ("Stottlemyre" prints in white letters - the scarce state of the pair; white letters are the premium side on all 23 of the set's name-color variations (#440-511)). Owning any one of them fills the #470 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.