1969 Topps #72 Ron Taylor
About Ron Taylor
Taylor and left-hander Tug McGraw carried the Mets bullpen through the miracle year, and Taylor led the club in both games pitched, 59, and saves, 13, going 9-4 with a 2.72 ERA that included 15 scoreless innings over a dozen outings from May 30 to June 24. In the first National League Championship Series he saved Game 1 for Tom Seaver, the first save in LCS history, then won Game 2. He later saved Jerry Koosman's Game 2 of the World Series, retiring Brooks Robinson with the tying run on second, and the Mets beat Baltimore in five. Card #72 lands in the first series.
Ronald Wesley Taylor was born December 13, 1937, in Toronto and died there on June 16, 2025, at 87. A natural left-hander whose mother made him learn to throw right-handed, he signed with Cleveland at 18 on the condition that he could keep going to school, and took an electrical engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1961 while working his way up the Indians' farm system. Over parts of 11 major league seasons from 1962 to 1972 he pitched for Cleveland, the St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Astros, New York Mets and San Diego Padres, going 45-43 with a 3.93 ERA, over 70 saves and 464 strikeouts in 491 games, 474 of them in relief. He won World Series rings with the 1964 Cardinals and the 1969 Miracle Mets and never gave up a hit in seven World Series innings. Taylor then enrolled at the University of Toronto medical school, graduated in 1977, and in 1979 became the Toronto Blue Jays' team physician, a job he held for more than three decades. He entered the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · The Baseball Cube
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 270 | 1 | 22 | 123 | 75 | 26 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 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.
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Related cards
More New York Mets cards:
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- #55 Jerry Grote
- #90 Jerry Koosman
- #112 J.C. Martin
- #127 Kevin Collins
- #144 Bob Hendley
- #193 Don Cardwell
- #221 Art Shamsky
- #245 Ed Charles
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #72 card?
It is card #72 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Taylor of the New York Mets.
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.