1969 Topps #517 Mike McCormick
About Mike McCormick
One card, and a hangover behind it. The screwball stopped breaking in 1968, and he finished 12-14 with a 3.58 earned run average over 198 1/3 innings, shoved out of the rotation for stretches from August on. His most famous pitch of the year left the park on July 14, when Hank Aaron hit his 500th home run off him; McCormick took the distinction in good humor and later put Mr. 500 on his license plate. Card #517 is a sixth-series number and his only card in this set.
Mike McCormick was born September 29, 1938, in Pasadena, California, and signed with the New York Giants on August 31, 1956, for a $50,000 bonus out of Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra. The bonus rule kept such a signing on the big-league roster, so the left-hander debuted four days later at seventeen, having never pitched in the minors. Sixteen seasons followed: the New York and San Francisco Giants (1956-1962 and 1967-1970), the Baltimore Orioles (1963-1964), the Washington Senators (1965-1966), the New York Yankees (1970) and the Kansas City Royals (1971). He led the National League with a 2.70 earned run average in 1960 and made all four All-Star squads of 1960 and 1961, when the majors staged two games a summer. A ruined shoulder nearly finished him at twenty-four; he rebuilt himself around a screwball and went 22-10 in 1967 to win San Francisco's first Cy Young Award and The Sporting News awards for Pitcher of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year. He retired with 134 wins, 128 losses, a 3.73 ERA, 1,321 strikeouts and 23 shutouts in 484 games, sold securities and then office equipment, and died June 13, 2020, at 81 in North Carolina. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee; the Giants honor him on their Wall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 263 | 0 | 71 | 128 | 27 | 22 | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Shop 1969 Topps cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #4 National League 1968 RBI Leaders
- #6 National League 1968 Home Run Leaders
- #8 National League 1968 ERA Leaders
- #10 National League 1968 Pitching Leaders
- #16 Giants 1969 Rookie Stars
- #41 Bob Barton
- #64 Bill Monbouquette
- #102 Jim Davenport
- #125 Ray Sadecki
- #158 Joe Gibbon
- #190 Willie Mays
- #204 Jack Hiatt
- #227 Frank Johnson
- #251 Ron Herbel
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #517 card?
It is card #517 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mike McCormick of the San Francisco Giants.
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.