1972 Topps #749 Walter Alston
About this card
Every club has a manager card of its own this year, separate from the 24 team cards, and every one of the 24 manager cards pictures the manager alone. Nine of them are Hall of Famers, and #510 Ted Williams manages the Texas Rangers in their first season after the move from Washington.
About Walter Alston
Alston's Dodgers fell 11 games out of first place during 1971, then closed to finish 89-73, one game behind San Francisco. Topps placed his Los Angeles manager card at #749 in the sixth series of 1972. That season his club went 85-70 and finished third in the National League West.
Walter Alston's major-league playing career lasted one game. Sent to first base for the ejected Johnny Mize by the 1936 St. Louis Cardinals, he struck out against Lon Warneke in his only at-bat. He spent 19 years in the minors as a player, player-manager and manager. Alston had lettered in baseball and basketball at Miami University and worked as a schoolteacher in Ohio. Branch Rickey brought him into the Dodgers' organization, where he managed Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe at Nashua in 1946. Six seasons at Brooklyn's Triple-A clubs in St. Paul and Montreal followed. When Charlie Dressen sought a multiyear contract, Walter O'Malley chose Alston to manage the Dodgers in 1954. Alston signed 23 consecutive one-year contracts and finished with 2,040 regular-season wins, seven National League pennants and four World Series championships. His nickname, Smokey, came from his fastball as a schoolboy pitcher; sportswriters also called him the Quiet Man. He handed the club to Tommy Lasorda for the final four games of 1976. Elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1983, Alston missed the induction ceremony after a heart attack. He died in Oxford, Ohio, in 1984.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 558 | 3 | 89 | 291 | 112 | 46 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 52 | 0 | 8 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 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: #522 Los Angeles Dodgers
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #11 Bobby Valentine
- #25 Bill Singer
- #63 Duke Sims
- #93 1971 N.L. Pitching Leaders
- #114 Bill Buckner
- #151 Jim Brewer
- #198 Dodgers 1972 Rookie Stars
- #264 Tommy John
- #265 Wes Parker
- #297 Claude Osteen
- #298 Claude Osteen In Action
- #322 Jose Pena
- #369 Jim Lefebvre
- #390 Willie Davis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #749 card?
It is card #749 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Walter Alston of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Every club has a manager card of its own this year, separate from the 24 team cards, and every one of the 24 manager cards pictures the manager alone. Nine of them are Hall of Famers, and #510 Ted Williams manages the Texas Rangers in their first season after the move from Washington.
Why is #749 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the sixth and last print series, #657-787 - with the fifth series, the toughest to find, per PSA.
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.