1961 Topps #372 Bob Hendley
About Bob Hendley
Card #372, a fifth-series printing, is Hendley's recognized rookie card and the first Topps issue to picture the 22-year-old Milwaukee left-hander. He had earned the look with a 16-win, 147-strikeout 1960 for Triple-A Louisville, that season's Junior World Series winner, then pitched six more games for the Colonels before the Braves called. His debut came June 23, 1961, at County Stadium against the Cubs: seven and a third innings, ten hits, four runs with three earned, and an exit from a 2-2 game with the bases loaded, the 5-3 loss falling to him when two inherited runners scored. Five days later in St. Louis he beat the Cardinals 8-3 for his first win.
Bob Hendley (born Charles Robert Hendley, April 30, 1939, in Macon, Georgia) turned down a baseball and basketball scholarship from the University of Georgia to sign with the Milwaukee Braves on August 17, 1957, out of Lanier High School, where he had thrown three no-hitters. After a 16-win, 147-strikeout 1960 season for Triple-A Louisville, that year's Junior World Series champion, the left-hander reached the majors on June 23, 1961. Over seven seasons with the Braves, Giants, Cubs and Mets he went 48-52 with a 3.97 ERA and 522 strikeouts in 216 games, 126 of them starts, battling elbow trouble that eventually required three operations. He is remembered above all for September 9, 1965, when he held the Dodgers to one hit and an unearned run while losing 1-0 to Sandy Koufax's perfect game, a contest SABR members voted the greatest ever pitched; he beat Koufax in a rematch five days later. Hendley left the game after 1969, earned a Mercer University degree in the off-seasons, coached high school baseball in Georgia across three decades, shared the 2014 Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award with Koufax and Vin Scully, and entered the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 241 | 0 | 14 | 124 | 66 | 21 | 10 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Related cards
Team card: #463b Milwaukee Braves Team
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #372 card?
It is card #372 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Hendley of the Milwaukee Braves.
Is 1961 Topps #372 a rookie card?
Yes - #372 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Bob Hendley.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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 2026-10-05.