1979 Topps #381 Houston Astros / Bill Virdon
About this card
This is one of the 26 team cards, one for each club, and each also carries the club's manager - there are no separate manager cards in 1979.
The story on this card
Bill Virdon's 1978 Astros slipped from 81-81 and third place to 74-88 and fifth in the NL West, 21 games behind the Dodgers. J. R. Richard struck out 303 batters, reaching 300 against Atlanta on September 28 as the first right-hander in National League history to do it in a season. The total broke Don Wilson's Houston record of 235 from 1969. Enos Cabell played all 162 games and set single-season club marks with 195 hits and 660 at-bats. Jose Cruz hit two walk-off home runs, and Terry Puhl was the club's All-Star. The Astrodome crowds totaled 1,126,145. Topps put the club and Virdon together on team card #381.
In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Pittsburgh center fielder Bill Virdon's grounder took a bad hop into Tony Kubek's throat. The single put two runners on with nobody out during the Pirates' five-run eighth inning.
Sources: Wikipedia (1978 Houston Astros season) · Wikipedia (Bill Virdon) · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 63 | 8 | 27 | 18 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1979 Topps #381 card?
It is card #381 of the 726-card 1979 Topps Baseball set, picturing the Houston Astros. This is one of the 26 team cards, one for each club, and each also carries the club's manager - there are no separate manager cards in 1979.
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.