1969 Topps #440 Willie McCovey
About Willie McCovey
Five 1969 cards cover McCovey, and 1968 is why: in the Year of the Pitcher he led the National League in home runs with 36, in RBI with 105 and in slugging at .545, batting .293. The first series carries both leaders cards, number 4 for RBI with Ron Santo and Billy Williams and number 6 for home runs with Richie Allen and Ernie Banks. Number 416 is his Sporting News All-Star card, number 572 the Giants Heroes card with Juan Marichal, and number 440 his own. That last one comes two ways: the common yellow lettering, and the scarce white lettering, one of the 23 fifth-series cards printed with the name in white. Mickey Mantle's card is another of the 23.
Born in Mobile, Alabama, on January 10, 1938, McCovey signed with the New York Giants in 1955 out of a Florida tryout camp. He reached the majors on July 30, 1959, four-for-four with two triples off Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, and finished at .354 with 13 home runs in 52 games to win National League Rookie of the Year. Six feet four, he was "Stretch" for the reach he gave the Giants at first base, and he grew into a dead-pull line-drive hitter who drew shifts and record intentional walks. He played 19 seasons for San Francisco, with San Diego and Oakland in between. He led the National League in home runs in 1963, 1968 and 1969 and in runs batted in in 1968 and 1969, and his 1969 line of 45 homers, 126 RBI and a .320 average brought the Most Valuable Player award. He made six All-Star teams and homered twice to win the 1969 All-Star Game MVP. His only World Series, in 1962, ended with his ninth-inning liner in the glove of Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson, tying and winning runs stranded. He retired in 1980 with 521 home runs, entered the Hall of Fame in 1986 on the first ballot, and gave his name to the cove beyond the Giants' right-field wall.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia · Cardboard Connection
Print variations
Two states of #440 are tracked individually: 440a - Last Name In Yellow and 440b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 440a - Last Name In Yellow | |||||||||
| PSA | 1,381 | 3 | 36 | 218 | 265 | 280 | 225 | 354 | 0 |
| SGC | 355 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 54 | 72 | 99 | 109 | 2 |
| 440b - Last Name In White | |||||||||
| PSA | 415 | 0 | 1 | 53 | 71 | 81 | 74 | 135 | 0 |
| SGC | 76 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 24 | 42 | 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 Willie McCovey in this set: #4 League Leaders, #6 League Leaders, #416 Sporting News All-Stars, #572 Giants Heroes
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 #440 card?
It is card #440 of the 664-card 1969 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants.
Does 1969 Topps #440 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked individually: 440a - Last Name In Yellow ("McCovey" prints in yellow letters on the front - the common state of this fifth-series card) and 440b - Last Name In White ("McCovey" in white letters - the scarce state and, with #485 Perry and #500 Mantle, one of the three Hall of Famer cards in the white-letter run). Owning any one of them fills the #440 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.