1977 Topps #239 Bill Plummer
About Bill Plummer
Plummer batted .137 in 51 games in 1977, and in July Sports Illustrated profiled the reserve catcher who took early batting and infield practice, then spent games watching for signs. Pete Rose offered the magazine praise for his work ethic, while Plummer called himself almost a player without a function. Card #239 shows him with the Reds.
Bill Plummer was a catcher who spent 1972 through 1977 as Johnny Bench's backup on the Cincinnati Reds, the Big Red Machine teams that won the 1975 and 1976 World Series. The Cubs took him from the Cardinals in the 1967 Rule 5 draft, and he appeared in two games in 1968 before Chicago sent him to Cincinnati in January 1969 in a deal for Ted Abernathy. He hit .188 with 14 home runs in 367 major-league games and finished in the majors with the 1978 Seattle Mariners. Opponents rated him tough and powerfully built, and Ken Griffey Sr. said in 1992 that he could have been a starter for anyone else. Plummer then managed for decades: Triple-A Calgary in the 1980s, the 1992 Mariners, who finished 64-98, and Arizona's farm system, with 1,583 managerial wins through 2017. He belongs to the Shasta County Sports Hall of Fame, the Sacramento Area Baseball Hall of Fame and the Northern California Sports Association Hall of Fame. He died in March 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 76 | 5 | 42 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 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: #287 Cincinnati Reds Team
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #3 1976 RBI Leaders
- #8 1976 Leading Firemen
- #23 Dan Driessen
- #45 Rawly Eastwick
- #70 Johnny Bench
- #86 Pat Zachry
- #100 Joe Morgan
- #121 Gary Nolan
- #139 Fred Norman
- #160 Will McEnaney
- #186 Doug Flynn
- #203 Ed Armbrister
- #221 Bob Bailey
- #277 1976 N.L. Championship
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1977 Topps #239 card?
It is card #239 of the 660-card 1977 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Plummer of the Cincinnati Reds.
How many cards are in the 1977 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, numbered 1 through 660 with none skipped and distributed as a single series. No card carries a catalogued print variation, so the base set and the master set are the same 660 cards.
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.