1969 Topps #32 Sammy Ellis
About Sammy Ellis
Series-one card #32 still pictures Ellis with California even though the Angels had already shipped him to the Chicago White Sox on January 20, 1969, for outfielder Bill Voss and a minor leaguer. Behind the card sits his one year in Anaheim: 9-10 with a 3.95 ERA, 93 strikeouts and 164 innings over 42 games in 1968, 24 of them starts. He lasted only ten games in Chicago, made his final major league appearance on June 8, 1969, was traded to Cleveland that month without ever pitching for them, and finished up in the minors.
Samuel Joseph Ellis was born February 11, 1941, in Youngstown, Ohio, and signed with the Cincinnati Reds as an amateur free agent in 1961 for a $50,000 bonus after a single year of college baseball at Mississippi State. He went 10-3 with a 1.89 ERA for Class A Columbia that first summer, reached Cincinnati on April 14, 1962, and no-hit the Tacoma Giants for Triple-A San Diego on August 14, 1962. His peak came in 1965: 22-10 with a 3.79 ERA, 183 strikeouts, 15 complete games and his only All-Star selection. A sore arm arrived the next season and he never had another winning year, moving on to the California Angels and then the Chicago White Sox. Ellis finished 63-58 with a 4.15 ERA and 677 strikeouts in seven major league seasons, then spent twelve seasons as a big league pitching coach, most famously turning Dave Righetti into a reliever for the 1984 Yankees. He died of cancer on May 13, 2016, in Temple Terrace, Florida, at 75.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 224 | 3 | 47 | 120 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 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 California Angels cards:
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- #78 Tom Satriano
- #103 Roger Repoz
- #134 Jim Weaver
- #157 Bob Rodgers
- #182 Bill Rigney
- #205 Rick Reichardt
- #224 Angels 1969 Rookie Stars
- #252 Chuck Cottier
- #275 Vic Davalillo
- #296 Andy Messersmith
- #315 Eddie Fisher
- #342 Bubba Morton
- #365 Jim Fregosi
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1969 Topps #32 card?
It is card #32 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sammy Ellis of the California Angels.
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.