1958 Topps #394 Mudcat Grant
About Mudcat Grant
Mudcat Grant's 1958 Topps #394 is a rookie card from the fifth series, showing him with the Cleveland Indians. The card follows his 1957 year at San Diego of the Pacific Coast League, where he went 18-7 with a 2.32 ERA and 178 strikeouts. He reached the majors that April and won his debut on April 17 with a complete game against Kansas City.
James Timothy Grant came out of the lumber town of Lacoochee, Florida, one of seven children, and lost his father when he was two. A football and baseball scholarship took him to Florida A&M, but he left in his sophomore year because the family needed the money, went to work as a carpenter's helper, and was signed for Cleveland in 1954 by bird-dog scout Fred Merkle. At the Indians' minor-league camp a man who took him for a Mississippian tagged him Mudcat, and the name stuck for life. Grant debuted on April 17, 1958 with a complete-game win over Kansas City and pitched 14 seasons for the Indians, Twins, Dodgers, Expos, Cardinals, Athletics and Pirates, finishing 145-119 with a 3.63 ERA, 53 saves and two All-Star selections. His 21-7 season for the 1965 Twins made him the first Black pitcher to win 20 games in the American League; that October he took two of three World Series starts from the Dodgers and homered in Game Six before Minnesota lost Game Seven to Sandy Koufax. He later broadcast for Cleveland and Oakland, co-wrote The Black Aces on the Black pitchers who reached 20 wins, and entered the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2012. He died in 2021 at 85.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · National Baseball Hall of Fame · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 270 | 0 | 6 | 59 | 80 | 67 | 36 | 21 | 1 |
| SGC | 31 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 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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- #35B Don Mossi (Yellow Team)
- #47 Roger Maris
- #55 Chico Carrasquel
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- #79B Dick Williams (Yellow Team)
- #102 George Strickland
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Mudcat Grant card?
It is card #394 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 Mudcat Grant, Cleveland Indians.
Is the 1958 Topps Mudcat Grant #394 a rookie card?
Yes - #394 is a rookie card, one of 103 in the 1958 Topps set.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Mudcat Grant #394 are there?
PSA has graded 270 copies and SGC 31 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.