1970 Topps #280 Donn Clendenon
About Donn Clendenon
Card #280, a third-series issue, shows Clendenon with the Mets, who acquired him from Montreal on June 15, 1969, for Steve Renko, Kevin Collins and two minor leaguers. He had joined the Expos on April 19 and was hitting .240 with four home runs and 14 RBI at the time of the deal. He finished the year at .248 with 16 home runs and 51 RBI, then homered in Games 2, 4 and 5 of the World Series.
Donn Alvin Clendenon was born July 15, 1935, in Neosho, Missouri, and grew up in Atlanta. He was a nine-sport letterman at Booker T. Washington High School and a twelve-letter man at Morehouse College, where Martin Luther King Jr. was his "big brother." Signed by Pittsburgh in 1957, the first baseman debuted in September 1961 and took the job when Dick Stuart was traded to Boston. He peaked in 1966 at .299 with 28 home runs and a career-high 98 RBI for the Pirates lineup called the Lumber Company. Montreal took him in the 1968 expansion draft and dealt him to Houston for Rusty Staub; he refused to report over manager Harry Walker and stayed an Expo. Traded to the Mets that June, he was named 1969 World Series MVP, batting .357 with three home runs against Baltimore. He finished at .274 with 159 home runs and 682 RBI over twelve seasons, later took a law degree from Duquesne University, worked as an addictions counselor, and died of leukemia in 2005, the year the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame inducted him.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (3) · Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 201 | 1 | 26 | 113 | 35 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1970 Topps #280 card?
It is card #280 of the 720-card 1970 Topps Baseball set, picturing Donn Clendenon of the New York Mets.
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.