1979 Topps #396 Bill Plummer
About Bill Plummer
Plummer re-signed with Seattle for 1979 after a nibble from Montreal, then spent the whole year at Triple-A Spokane as player-coach under Rene Lachemann. The Mariners released him on October 4, and he announced his retirement as a player, saying he would welcome a chance to manage in the minors. Card #396 lists him as a Mariner.
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 | 65 | 17 | 32 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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: #659 Seattle Mariners / Darrell Johnson
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- #56 John Hale
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- #103 Jim Todd
- #141 Tom Paciorek
- #166 Leon Roberts
- #199 Larry Milbourne
- #233 Paul Mitchell
- #252 Bob Stinson
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- #312 Bob Robertson
- #337 John Montague
- #366 Juan Bernhardt
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1979 Topps #396 card?
It is card #396 of the 726-card 1979 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Plummer of the Seattle Mariners.
How many cards are in the 1979 Topps Baseball set?
726 cards, numbered 1 through 726 with none skipped and issued as a single series, tracked as 727 collectible states: #369 Bump Wills comes with a Rangers or a Blue Jays team banner, and the master set counts both.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA, 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.