1958 Topps #4 Hank Foiles
About Hank Foiles
Hank Foiles is card #4 in the first series of 1958 Topps, pictured as a Pittsburgh Pirate. It reports his 1957, a career year for the catcher: 109 games, a .270 average, 9 home runs and 36 RBI. He was a reserve on the National League All-Star team, pinch-hitting in the ninth inning with a single off Billy Pierce and scoring in a 6-5 loss.
Henry Lee Foiles Jr. (1929-2024) was a right-handed catcher from Richmond, Virginia, raised in Norfolk, where he starred in football and baseball at Granby High School. Signed by the New York Yankees in November 1947, he was taken by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1951 Rule 5 draft and debuted in the majors in April 1953. After bouncing between Cincinnati, the Cleveland Indians and the minor leagues, he landed in Pittsburgh in a May 1956 trade for Preston Ward, and his arm and glove made him one of the National League's better defensive catchers. His finest season came in 1957, when he hit .270 with 9 home runs and 36 RBIs and was picked for the National League All-Star team, singling as a pinch hitter and scoring in the ninth inning of a 6-5 loss. He caught more than 100 games again in 1958 before Smoky Burgess took the job in 1959. Then came the churn: 1960 alone sent him from Kansas City to Pittsburgh to Cleveland to Detroit. He closed an eleven-year career in 1964 with a .243 average, 46 home runs and a .986 fielding mark, is credited as the first big leaguer to play in contact lenses, and was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 237 | 0 | 7 | 72 | 85 | 40 | 19 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 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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- #52 Roberto Clemente
- #52B Roberto Clemente (Yellow Team)
- #74 Roy Face
- #82 Ron Kline
- #94 Bob Skinner
- #104 Jim Pendleton
- #132 Vern Law
- #151 Buddy Pritchard
- #172 Don Gross
- #178 Ted Kluszewski
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Hank Foiles card?
It is card #4 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 Hank Foiles, Pittsburgh Pirates.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Hank Foiles #4 are there?
PSA has graded 237 copies and SGC 17 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.