1972 Topps #242 Don Mincher
About Don Mincher
Mincher hit his 200th and last major-league home run on July 10, 1972, off Joe Coleman at Detroit, in his one season with the Texas Rangers. Texas sent him back to Oakland with Ted Kubiak that July. In the World Series he singled as a pinch hitter off Clay Carroll in the ninth inning of Game 4, driving in the tying run against Cincinnati, and Oakland won in seven games. Card #242, a second-series issue, lists him with the Rangers.
Don Mincher was a left-handed-hitting first baseman from Huntsville, Alabama, who played in the majors from 1960 through 1972. Signed by the Chicago White Sox out of high school, he was sent to the Washington Senators in April 1960 along with Earl Battey and $150,000 for Roy Sievers, then moved with the franchise to Minneapolis-St. Paul when it became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. He settled in as the Twins' regular first baseman by the mid-1960s, helped the club to the 1965 American League pennant, and homered off Don Drysdale in his first World Series at-bat. Traded to the California Angels after 1966, he made the All-Star team in 1967. Seattle took him with its first selection in the October 1968 expansion draft, second overall, and he hit 25 home runs for the one-and-only Pilots and made a second All-Star team in 1969. Later trades took him to Oakland, to the expansion Washington Senators (the Texas Rangers by 1972) and back to Oakland, where he earned a World Series ring in 1972. He retired with exactly 200 home runs, 643 RBIs and a .249 average over 13 seasons, then spent decades as a minor league executive in his hometown and was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 328 | 16 | 96 | 170 | 30 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 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: #668 Texas Rangers
More Texas Rangers cards:
- #23 Ted Kubiak
- #64 Pete Broberg
- #104 Toby Harrah
- #122 Larry Biittner
- #148 Dick Billings
- #191 Jeff Burroughs
- #210 Denny McLain
- #231 Casey Cox
- #277 Elliott Maddox
- #317 Rich Hand
- #329 Roy Foster
- #334 Rangers 1972 Rookie Stars
- #350 Frank Howard
- #365 Dick Bosman
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #242 card?
It is card #242 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Mincher of the Texas Rangers.
How many cards are in the 1972 Topps Baseball set?
787 cards, tracked as 794 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 787 with none skipped, in six print series (#1-132, #133-263, #264-394, #395-525, #526-656 and #657-787, the high numbers); 7 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - four Chicago Cubs cards with yellow or green under the "C" and "S" of the team name, the #251 and #478 checklists with smaller or larger print on the front, and the #604 checklist with its copyright line aligned right or left.
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.