1958 Topps #208 Cal McLish
About Cal McLish
Topps #208 comes from the third series of the 1958 set and pictures McLish with the Cleveland Indians. The season it reports was 1957, his second year back in the majors after a long absence: 44 games, 7 starts, a 9-7 record and a 2.74 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 144 1/3 innings, plus one save. Cleveland was about to make him its ace, and he won 16 games in 1958.
Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, on December 1, 1925, the seventh of eight children, named by a father who had not been allowed to name the first six. Signed out of Oklahoma City's Central High School by Brooklyn scout Tom Greenwade, he reached the Dodgers in May 1944 at 18 with almost no pitching experience, then reported for Army duty that August and served in Europe with the 3rd Infantry Division, missing all of 1945. Most of the early 1950s went by in the Pacific Coast League until a Cleveland farm club bought him in 1955. He finally held a big-league rotation spot at 32, going 16-8 in 1958 and 19-8 in 1959, clearing 200 innings both years and saving the second of that summer's two All-Star Games for the American League. Cincinnati, the White Sox and the Phillies followed in three straight winters, and he retired in 1964 at 92-92 with 713 strikeouts. He coached big-league pitchers from 1965 to 1982, for Gene Mauch in Philadelphia and Montreal and then in Milwaukee, where Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuckovich won Cy Young Awards. The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 2009.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 205 | 0 | 7 | 68 | 68 | 39 | 12 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Related cards
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- #2B Bob Lemon (Yellow Team)
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- #35B Don Mossi (Yellow Team)
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Cal McLish card?
It is card #208 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Cal McLish, Cleveland Indians.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Cal McLish #208 are there?
PSA has graded 205 copies and SGC 20 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.