1973 Topps #52 Denis Menke
About Denis Menke
Menke hit .250 in Cincinnati's five-game National League Championship Series win over Pittsburgh in 1972 and .083 in the seven-game World Series loss to Oakland. Playing mostly third base that year, he batted .233 with nine home runs and 50 RBI and posted a .955 fielding percentage at the position, fifth best in the league. His #52 in the first series of the 1973 Topps set shows him with the Reds.
Denis John Menke was born July 21, 1940, on a 480-acre farm outside Bancroft, Iowa, and signed with the Milwaukee Braves in May 1958 for a bonus reported at between $125,000 and $175,000, a sizable sum in the years before the draft began. After Pacific Coast League Rookie of the Year honors at Vancouver in 1961, he debuted on April 14, 1962, and played 13 major-league seasons for the Braves, Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds, playing shortstop, second base, third base and first base. He batted .250 with 101 home runs and 606 runs batted in over 1,598 games, and was picked for the National League All-Star team as a shortstop in 1969 and 1970. In November 1971 Houston sent him to Cincinnati in the deal built around Joe Morgan. He started at third base for the 1972 pennant winners, homering off Catfish Hunter in Game Five of the World Series and setting a Series record with 29 chances at third without an error. He played his last game July 10, 1974, managed in the minors, then coached in the majors with the Blue Jays, Astros, Phillies and Reds, serving as Philadelphia's hitting coach from 1989 to 1996. He died December 1, 2020, in Tarpon Springs, Florida, at 80.
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 | 258 | 10 | 108 | 122 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 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: #641 Cincinnati Reds
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #8 Tom Hall
- #28 Hal McRae
- #62 1972 Home Run Leaders
- #63 1972 Runs Batted In Leaders
- #68 1972 Leading Firemen
- #89 Jack Billingham
- #130 Pete Rose
- #156 Cesar Geronimo
- #177 Bill Plummer
- #195 Clay Carroll
- #202 N.L. Playoffs: Foster's Run Decides It
- #205 World Series Game No. 3: Reds Win Squeaker
- #208 World Series Game No. 6: Reds' Slugging Ties Series
- #230 Joe Morgan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1973 Topps #52 card?
It is card #52 of the 660-card 1973 Topps Baseball set, picturing Denis Menke of the Cincinnati Reds.
How many cards are in the 1973 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 679 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, in five series of 132 - #1-132, #133-264, #265-396, #397-528 and the high numbers, #529-660, printed in lower quantities; 19 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fifteen Field Leaders cards, the #20 Stan Bahnsen, #31 Buddy Bell and #504 Earl Williams border-gap pairs and the two #280 Al Kaline printings.
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.