#9 1968 A.L. Pitching Leaders - McLain / McNally / Tiant / Stottlemyre

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1969 Topps set.  League leader cards can be found at the beginning of each Topps set issued in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969.

Building the Set / Card #560
September 21, 2025 from The Philly Show (America's Pastime)

On Sunday morning, September 21st, I made the hour-long drive to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of the Philadelphia Sports Card & Memorabilia Show, known to its friends as The Philly Show.  The show has a legitimate official sponsor (eBay) and the advertisement for the event notes the show is in its 50th year.  

I hadn't attended a baseball card show since the last Philly Show in December, and I was flying solo to this one as our oldest son is in his first month of college at Villanova.  I posted a full summary of the show over at The Phillies Room.

I made stops at six tables at the show, all yielding needed cards for our 1969 Topps set, and I left the show with just 16 more cards to go for my version of a complete set.  The first place I stopped was a table with well-organized and well-marked binders of commons and semi-stars with 20% Off notes across the front of each binder.  

I took my time and found 32 commons and semi-stars needed before asking to see the dealer's star cards from the set.  It turned out this first purchase was also my biggest, as I spent over half my allotted budget here, America's Pastime from Fair Lawn, New Jersey, before moving on to my second stop.  This was the first of 36 total cards bought from America's Pastime, and the first of 91 cards for set added overall on the day, and it cost a little over $3 after the dealer discount.

The Card / Tigers Team Set / Orioles Team Set / Indians Team Set / Yankees Team Set

This is the only League Leaders card in the set featuring four players.  Given the rarity of 20-game winners in today's game, it's still incredibly impressive to turn this card over and see 31 wins next to Denny McLain's (#150) name.  No one else was even close to him.  Dave McNally (#340) won his 22nd game on the penultimate day of the 1968 season, giving him sole possession of the card's middle panel.  

Luis Tiant (#560) and Mel Stottlemyre tied for third place with 21 wins each.  Tiant won his 21st in Indians' Game 160 on September 25th, and Stottlemeyre (#470) reached his 21st win in Yankees' Game 159 on September 24th.  There was enough room on the back of the card to highlight each American League pitcher with at least seven wins in 1968.  The eight tied with six wins, and omitted from the back of the card due to space constraints, were Steve Barber (#233), Gene Brabender (#393), Jim Lonborg (#109), Sparky Lyle (#311), Juan Pizarro (#498), Pete Richert (#86), Diego Segui (#511) and Joe Verbanic (#541).

#8 1968 N.L. ERA Leaders / #10 1968 N.L. Pitching Leaders

#340 Dave McNally - Baltimore Orioles

David Arthur McNally
Baltimore Orioles
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Left  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  185
Born:  October 31, 1942, Billings, MT
Signed:  Signed by the Baltimore Orioles as an amateur free agent, September 9, 1960
Major League Teams:  Baltimore Orioles 1962-74; Montreal Expos 1975

World Series Appearances:  Baltimore Orioles 1966, 1969-71
Died:  December 1, 2002, Billings, MT (age 60)

Dave McNally was an All-Star left-handed pitcher, who pitched 13 seasons with the Orioles and helped his club win World Championships in 1966 and 1970.  McNally had a somewhat slow rise to the top, going 48-38 with a 3.57 ERA in 153 games between 1962 and 1967.  He started two of the four games won by the Orioles in the 1966 World Series in their sweep of the Dodgers, pitching a complete game shutout in the decisive Game 4.  He secured his first 20-win season in 1968, going 22-10 with a 1.95 ERA.  McNally followed that up with two more 20-win seasons in 1969 and 1970, earning trips to his first two (of three) All-Star Games.  1970 was to be his career year as he tied teammate Mike Cuellar (#453) with 24 wins.  He was 24-9 with a 3.22 ERA, finishing second in the Cy Young voting behind the Twins' Jim Perry (#146).  In the 1970 postseason, McNally threw two complete game victories in Game 4 of the ALCS against the Twins and in Game 3 of the World Series against the Reds.

Dealt to the Expos in the Ken Singleton deal in December 1974, McNally appeared in 12 games for the club before abruptly retiring following his final big league start on June 8, 1975.  In 424 games, McNally was 184-119 with a 3.24 ERA, 120 complete games and 33 shutouts.  He was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 1978, as the Hall's third ever inductee behind Brooks Robinson (#550) and Frank Robinson (#250).  McNally also earned a place on the Orioles All-Century team in 1999.

Some text for this post originally appeared on my 1965 Topps blog.

Building the Set / Card #322
December 3, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)
Doug and I returned to The Philly Show in early December, once again held inside the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  eBay has taken over sponsorship of the show, with the quaint, bubble-lettered Philly Show logo that had been in place since the 1980s replaced with a more modern logo, keeping with the times.  I wrote about the show in a post over at The Phillies Room.

Similar to my strategy from March, I wanted to focus on accumulating commons and having found success with Uncle Dick's Cards before, I didn't mess around and headed right for the neon green binders.  I pulled 145 cards from the binder containing cards 301 to the end of the set, stopping when I reached 500.  This card was the 30th of 145 cards purchased for our set, and after the dealer discount due to my bulk purchase, it cost me a little over $1.

The Card / Orioles Team Set / Accuracy Index +5

McNally appears four times in this set, with two League Leaders cards (#7 and #9), on the Bird Hill Aces (#532) card and this base card.  The back of the card summarizes McNally's rise to stardom in 1968.

Accuracy Index:  McNally's card earns a solid +5.

Inserts:  McNally is included as one of the 48 decals in the Topps Decals insert set.

1969 Season
McNally was 20-7 with a 3.22 ERA in 41 appearances, striking out 166 over 268 2/3 innings pitched.  He finished among the top ten in the American League for wins, innings pitched, strikeouts and games started.  McNally began the season with an impressive 15-0 run, earning an All-Star Game berth, and didn't lose his first game until August 3rd.  He pitched two scoreless innings in the All-Star Game, striking out Willie McCovey (#440).  McNally started Games 2 and 5 of the World Series against the Mets, pitching a complete game but losing Game 2, and pitching seven innings in Game 5 but earning a no-decision.

1963 Topps #562

1966 Topps #193

1970 Topps #20

1972 Topps #223

1975 Topps #26

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1963 Topps #562
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (13):  1963-75
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2005 Upper Deck Classics #24
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  140 in the Beckett online database as of 7/2/24.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database
1965 Topps Blog

#339 Reds Rookie Stars / #341 Dave Adlesh - St. Louis Cardinals

#7 1968 A.L. ERA Leaders - Luis Tiant / Sam McDowell / Dave McNally

Beginning in 1961, Topps started including league leader cards in its sets and there are 12 league leaders cards kicking off the 1969 Topps set.  League leader cards can be found at the beginning of each Topps set issued in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969.

Building the Set / Card #80
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set.  That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon.  I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.

This is the third of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York.  My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside.  After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far.  With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298.  The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards.  (This card was marked $2.50, but goes down as $2.08 in my tracking schedule.)  If I stick to composing posts five times a week, which may slip through the summer months, I should go through the stack and be caught up by the week of January 22, 2024!

The Card / Indians Team Set / Orioles Team Set

A number of the league leaders cards in the 1969 set lack serious star power, and this card is no exception, but at least all three players here have team logos on their hats.  Teammates Luis Tiant (#560) and Sam McDowell (#220) had fantastic seasons for the third place Indians, and their personal records would likely have been better on a team with more wins.  Tiant was 21-9 with a 1.60 ERA in 34 overall appearances, including 32 starts, and 258 1/3 innings pitched.  

Given Denny McLain (#150) was 31-6 with a 1.96 in 1968, no other American League pitcher even received consideration in the Cy Young Award voting.  Tiant would win the ERA title again in 1972 with the Red Sox, with a 1.91 mark.  McDowell had been a previous ERA title winner in 1965 when his ERA was 2.18.  He made five more starts than Tiant and threw a team leading 269 innings.

Dave McNally (#340) just squeaked by McLain for the third spot on the front of the card, earning a 1.95 ERA.  His ERA in the 1969 postseason was 1.67 overall.  This card is listed as an UER (uncorrected error) on most checklists, given Topps misspelled McNally's name on the back.

#6 1968 N.L. Home Run Leaders / #8 1968 N.L. ERA Leaders

#532 Bird Hill Aces - Phoebus / Hardin / McNally / Cuellar CPC

In the set's sixth series, Topps made the decision to include four (and only four) combo cards featuring members of the Orioles, Senators, Athletics and Giants.  A staple throughout the prior decade-plus of Topps sets, the combo cards would make a brief, final appearance with these four cards and then disappear again.  Various checklists also denote these as "CPC" for combo player cards.

Building the Set / Card #72
February 13, 2023 from Wenonah, NJ (Gar Miller Cards)
Given my chosen profession, I sit through an inordinate amount of work meetings, which are now almost all virtual in this post-pandemic world.  On some occasions, these meetings are admittedly a combination of boring, unneeded, too lengthy or some combination of all three.  During a recent early February virtual work meeting, and after it became apparent the meeting had derailed into matters unimportant to me personally, I bought a bunch of old baseball cards.  Gar Miller is a noted hobby luminary, and he still sells vintage baseball cards via his online store, Gar Miller Cards.  I navigated over to his website, picking up a small stack of cards from this 1969 Topps set build and a few bonus cards for our not yet officially collecting 1955 Bowman and 1959 Topps sets.  For those watching me on screen during the virtual work meeting, I had the appearance of someone smiling, nodding appreciatively and following along attentively.  But in reality, I was adding baseball cards to my online cart, including this Bird Hill Aces card which was $10.

October 9, 1969 - Cuellar, Palmer and McNally

The Card / Orioles Team Set

Collectors and baseball fans will most likely immediately recognize there's a key person missing in this photo, as it only features four of the five most regularly used starting pitchers by the pennant-winning 1969 Orioles team.  Dave McNally (#340) was the team's opening day pitcher, followed by Mike Cuellar (#453) and Jim Hardin (#610).  But then future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer (#573) slotted in as the fourth starter with Tom Phoebus (#185) rounding out the quintet.  Cuellar is the newcomer to the group, as he had been acquired from the Astros on December 4, 1968.  

It's likely this photo was taken during spring training in 1969, on the same day Cuellar was having his picture taken for his solo Topps card in the set.  The back of the card summarizes the accolades of each pitcher, starting with Phoebus and Hardin.  Palmer would throw his only career no-hitter on August 13, 1969, driving home his unfortunate omission from a card labelled "Bird Hill Aces."

1969 Season
McNally was one of six Orioles to head to the All-Star Game in 1969, and the only pitcher from the club.  Cuellar would lead the pitching staff with a 23-11 record, a 2.38 ERA, 18 complete games and five shutouts.  McNally was 20-7 with a 3.22 ERA.  Palmer, despite only making 26 appearances and 23 starts, would top all Orioles pitchers with a 4.2 bWAR.  He was 16-4 with a 2.34 ERA, 11 complete games and a team-leading six shutouts.  He'd strike out 123 in 181 innings.  Phoebus was 14-7 with a 3.52 ERA and Hardin finished with a 6-7 record to go with a 3.60 ERA at the back end of the rotation.

McNally threw an 11-inning complete game shutout against the Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS, striking out 11.  Palmer clinched the series with a complete game of his own in Game 3.  In the 1969 World Series,  Cuellar won Game 1 with a complete game victory, allowing just a run.  Jerry Koosman (#90) out dueled McNally in Game 2 to tie the series at 1-1.  Game 3 saw Palmer get roughed up, allowing four runs over six innings and Game 4 belonged to Tom Seaver (#480) who outmatched Cuellar in another low-scoring extra inning game.  In the decisive Game 5, McNally took the mound again, with he and Eddie Watt (#652) faltering in the late innings as the Mets amazingly took the World Series.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference / Wikipedia

#531 Dick Farrell - Philadelphia Phillies / #533 Nolan Ryan - New York Mets