1962 Topps #138 Babe Ruth Special: The Famous Slugger
About this card
Cards #135-144 are the ten-card Babe Ruth Special, a tribute run printed inside the green-tint series that follows Ruth from Babe As A Boy (#135) to his Farewell Speech (#144). #137 pairs him with manager Miller Huggins and #140 with Lou Gehrig; #141 lists the 1935 Boston Braves and #142 the 1938 Brooklyn Dodgers he coached; and Babe Hits 60 shares printed #139 with two Hal Reniff cards, so it is catalogued 139c.
The story on this card
Card 138 is the fourth entry in the ten-card Babe Ruth Special subset (cards 135-144), a chronological retrospective Topps ran through its second series in the wake of Roger Maris eclipsing Ruth's single-season home run record the year before. Titled "The Famous Slugger," it sits between "Babe and Mgr. Huggins" and "Babe Hits 60," and carries his New York Yankees line; the back gives over its text to a detailed account of Ruth's rough 1925 season. A flawed printing early in the second-series run left every card in that series with two distinct printings, so 138 turns up plain and with a green tint, the tinted one priced at a slight premium.
Babe Ruth was baseball's original superstar, a Red Sox pitching ace turned Yankees slugger who led the American League in home runs twelve times, hit 60 in 1927 for Murderers' Row, and won the 1923 Most Valuable Player award.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Print variations
Two states of #138 are tracked individually: 138a - No Green Tint and 138b - Green Tint. The difference is on the front of the card (green tint).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 138a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 958 | 0 | 13 | 151 | 261 | 205 | 111 | 206 | 11 |
| SGC | 265 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 40 | 55 | 64 | 81 | 4 |
| 138b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 151 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 30 | 35 | 25 | 35 | 3 |
| SGC | 47 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Related cards
More Babe Ruth in this set: #135 Babe Ruth Special, #136 Babe Ruth Special, #137 Babe Ruth Special, #139c Babe Ruth Special, #140 Babe Ruth Special, #141 Babe Ruth Special, #142 Babe Ruth Special, #143 Babe Ruth Special, #144 Babe Ruth Special
Team card: #251 New York Yankees Team
More New York Yankees cards:
- #1 Roger Maris
- #18 Managers' Dream
- #31 Tom Tresh
- #48 Ralph Terry
- #65 Bobby Richardson
- #88 Ralph Houk
- #93 John Blanchard
- #110 Bill Skowron
- #136 Babe Ruth Special: Babe Joins Yanks
- #137 Babe Ruth Special: Babe and Mgr. Huggins
- #139a Hal Reniff
- #139b Hal Reniff
- #139c Babe Ruth Special: Babe Hits 60
- #140 Babe Ruth Special: Gehrig and Ruth
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #138 card?
It is card #138 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees. Cards #135-144 are the ten-card Babe Ruth Special, a tribute run printed inside the green-tint series that follows Ruth from Babe As A Boy (#135) to his Farewell Speech (#144). #137 pairs him with manager Miller Huggins and #140 with Lou Gehrig; #141 lists the 1935 Boston Braves and #142 the 1938 Brooklyn Dodgers he coached; and Babe Hits 60 shares printed #139 with two Hal Reniff cards, so it is catalogued 139c.
Does 1962 Topps #138 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 138a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 138b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #138 slot; the master set counts each state.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.