1969 Topps #178 Ray Oyler
About Ray Oyler
Detroit left Oyler unprotected and the expansion Seattle Pilots selected him; he became the club's regular shortstop in its only season in Seattle, hitting .165 with seven home runs, his career high, in 106 games. This 1969 Topps card, a print series 2 issue, shows him with the Pilots.
Ray Oyler made his name with his glove, not his bat. A Marine veteran out of Indianapolis, he signed with Detroit in 1960 and spent five seasons climbing the farm system before sticking as the Tigers' shortstop in the mid-1960s. Managers and teammates raved about his range and hands - Dick McAuliffe called him the best shortstop he ever played with - but his bat never caught up, and his .175 career average is the lowest on record for any player with over 1,000 at-bats since the deadball era. Oyler's defense held down short for Detroit's pennant contenders of 1967 and the 1968 World Series champions, even as manager Mayo Smith ultimately benched him for the Series to get Mickey Stanley's bat into the lineup at short. Drafted by the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969, he closed his career in 1970 with the California Angels. He died in 1981 at age 42.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 204 | 3 | 30 | 92 | 50 | 21 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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
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- #254 Joe Schultz
- #285 Don Mincher
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #178 card?
It is card #178 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ray Oyler of the Seattle Pilots.
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.