1961 Topps #462 Lou Klimchock
About Lou Klimchock
Card 462 sits in the sixth print series of the 1961 set. It lists Klimchock with the Kansas City Athletics, the organization that signed him out of high school, and it follows the quietest year of his young career. He opened 1960 at Triple-A Dallas, where a leg injury cost him much of the season, and he turned up in Kansas City only briefly in July, going 3-for-10 as a pinch-hitter. The Athletics had not soured on him: their farm director, former Yankee outfielder George Selkirk, believed he could handle second base every day in the majors.
Louis Stephen Klimchock, a left-handed-hitting infielder from Hostetter, Pennsylvania, signed with the Kansas City Athletics in 1957 out of Latrobe High School, which fielded no baseball team; he played American Legion ball instead and was signed by scout Bruno Betzel. He tore up the Class C Pioneer League in 1958 at .389, then made history that September in Chicago, homering off a fellow teenager for his first major league hit. Over parts of 12 big league seasons between 1958 and 1970 he played mostly second and third base for the Athletics, Braves, Senators, Mets and Indians, but trades and long minor league stretches kept breaking up his career; his biggest year in the minors was a Pacific Coast League MVP season at Denver in 1964. His best major league season came late, in 1969 with Cleveland, when he hit .287 over a career-high 90 games. He finished at .232 with 13 home runs and 69 RBI in 318 games. He managed winter ball in Puerto Rico and two seasons at Reno, worked for Coors and then Coca-Cola, and has spent decades raising money for baseball alumni charities in Arizona.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 381 | 0 | 29 | 206 | 101 | 27 | 15 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 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: #297 Kansas City Athletics Team
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- #24 Ken Johnson
- #39 Leo Posada
- #57 Marv Throneberry
- #94 Johnny Kucks
- #106 Whitey Herzog
- #119 A's Big Armor
- #143 Russ Snyder
- #177 Don Larsen
- #197 Dick Hall
- #199 Bob Boyd
- #212 Haywood Sullivan
- #224 Joe Gordon
- #248 Ed Keegan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #462 card?
It is card #462 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Lou Klimchock of the Kansas City Athletics.
Why is #462 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 447-522) - noticeably tougher than the first five, easier than the true highs.
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.