1978 Topps #79 Darrell Johnson
About this card
This is one of the 25 manager cards. Team cards and manager cards are separate cards this year: every club has a team card, and every club except the Milwaukee Brewers has a manager card - George Bamberger was hired in late January 1978, too late to be included.
About Darrell Johnson
Seattle hired Johnson on September 3, 1976, to manage its expansion club and help scout players for the expansion draft. His Mariners finished 64-98 in 1977, sixth in the American League West. Topps included him among its 1978 managers on Seattle card #79.
Darrell Dean Johnson was born in Horace, Nebraska, on August 25, 1928. A reserve catcher, he appeared in parts of six major league seasons between 1952 and 1962 for the St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles. A Browns scout signed him after the 1949 California state amateur tournament, and he climbed through the minors as a right-handed hitting, right-handed throwing catcher with a well-regarded arm. He credited his double-jointed thumbs with keeping that throwing hand healthy, telling The Sporting News in 1955 that a foul tip usually knocked a thumb out of joint and he could snap it back. He batted .234 with two home runs and 28 runs batted in across 134 games. An August 1961 sale to Cincinnati put him with the pennant-winning Reds, where he shared the catching down the stretch and then played in the World Series against the Yankees. Baltimore released him as a player in June 1962, and he turned to coaching, scouting and managing, most famously taking the 1975 Boston Red Sox to the American League pennant and winning The Sporting News Manager of the Year award. He later managed the expansion Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 117 | 19 | 56 | 34 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 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
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- #333 Jim Todd
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1978 Topps #79 card?
It is card #79 of the 726-card 1978 Topps Baseball set, picturing Darrell Johnson of the Seattle Mariners. This is one of the 25 manager cards. Team cards and manager cards are separate cards this year: every club has a team card, and every club except the Milwaukee Brewers has a manager card - George Bamberger was hired in late January 1978, too late to be included.
How many cards are in the 1978 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, and 728 collectible states: #23 Bump Wills comes with or without a black circle, and #374 Jose Morales with or without black stitching over the red laces, so the master set counts both states of each.
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.