1962 Topps #415 Bill Virdon
About Bill Virdon
Heaviest workload of his career came in 1962: 156 games and 663 at-bats, 27 doubles and a National League best 10 triples, with the average down at .247. The glove answered for the bat. At 31 he took the only Gold Glove of his career, in the second season of balloting that honored three outfielders rather than one at each position. Number 415 belongs to the fifth series of the 1962 Topps set.
William Charles Virdon grew up in West Plains, Missouri, and signed with the Yankees for an $1,800 bonus after a tryout camp in Branson. Stuck behind Mickey Mantle, he was traded to St. Louis in the spring of 1954 in the deal that sent Enos Slaughter to New York, and in 1955 he hit .281 with 17 home runs and was named National League Rookie of the Year. A slow start the next spring cost him that job: the Cardinals sent him to Pittsburgh in May 1956 for Bobby Del Greco and Dick Littlefield, and he batted .334 the rest of the way to finish second to Hank Aaron in the batting race. Broadcaster Bob Prince called him Quail because his soft hits dipped in front of the outfielders like a dying quail. Ten durable seasons in the deep pastures of Forbes Field followed, with a Gold Glove in 1962 and a leading role in the 1960 World Series, where his bad-hop grounder off Tony Kubek opened Pittsburgh's five-run eighth inning in Game Seven. He left the field after 1965 with 1,596 hits and a .267 average, then managed the Pirates, Yankees, Astros and Expos, twice taking Manager of the Year honors from The Sporting News. The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 1983.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 195 | 0 | 6 | 67 | 80 | 26 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 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. 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #415 card?
It is card #415 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Virdon of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.