1970 Topps #519 Don McMahon


About Don McMahon
Detroit traded McMahon to San Francisco on August 8, 1969, for Cesar Gutierrez, with McMahon 3-5 and 11 saves. Card #519 is a fifth-series issue that shows him with the Giants, for whom he pitched 13 games that year. At 40 in 1970 he appeared in 61 games and set a career high with 19 saves. He went 9-5 with a 2.96 ERA and struck out 74 batters.
Donald John McMahon was a right-handed relief pitcher from Brooklyn, New York, signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent in 1950 and converted from third base to the mound in their farm system. He reached the majors on June 30, 1957, at age 27, after roughly five and a half years in the minors and two years in the Army, and he believed he was the first pitcher ever called up strictly as a reliever. Used almost entirely out of the bullpen, he appeared in 874 games, two of them as a starter, and struck out 1,003 batters. He finished 90-68 with a 2.96 ERA and 153 saves. He was a 1958 National League All-Star selection and won World Series rings with the 1957 Braves and the 1968 Tigers, also pitching for the Colt .45's, Indians, Red Sox, White Sox and Giants. Sold or traded repeatedly in the 1960s, he tended to pitch well in his first season with a new club. He never spent a day on the disabled list, and he threw his last big league pitch in 1974 at age 44 while serving as the Giants pitching coach.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 153 | 4 | 31 | 88 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. 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
Team card: #696 San Francisco Giants
More San Francisco Giants cards:
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- #42 Tito Fuentes
- #58 Dave Marshall
- #63 1969 National League RBI Leaders
- #65 1969 National League Home Run Leaders
- #67 1969 National League ERA Leaders
- #69 1969 National League Pitching Leaders
- #77 Frank Linzy
- #107 Bobby Etheridge
- #135 Dick Dietz
- #176 Jim Hart
- #210 Juan Marichal
- #229 Rich Robertson
- #250 Willie McCovey
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1970 Topps #519 card?
It is card #519 of the 720-card 1970 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don McMahon of the San Francisco Giants.
How many cards are in the 1970 Topps Baseball set?
720 cards, tracked as 726 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 720 with none skipped, issued in seven series - #1-132, #133-263, #264-372, #373-459, #460-546, #547-633 and the high numbers, #634-720; 6 cards, all of them checklists, carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-25.