1962 Topps #121 Billy Hitchcock
About this card
The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
About Billy Hitchcock
Card #121 puts Hitchcock in the manager subset of the 1962 set, a second-series number, and it catches him in his first summer running a big-league club. Lee MacPhail had hired him the previous October to replace Paul Richards, betting that an easy-going Alabaman would get more out of Baltimore's young roster than the authoritarian Richards had. Brooks Robinson hit .303 and Jim Gentile drove in 87 runs, but the club slid from 95 wins to 77-85 and seventh place, 19 games behind the Yankees. The number also comes two ways: collectors sort #121 into copies carrying the greenish cast found on part of the second series and copies without it.
William Clyde Hitchcock, born July 31, 1916 in Inverness, Alabama, starred in two sports at Auburn, scoring the only touchdown in the school's first bowl game and captaining its first conference champion in baseball. The Yankees signed him in 1938 and Detroit made him its shortstop for 1942, but that rookie year ended in August when the Army Air Force called him to active duty; he came home a major with a Bronze Star. Back in 1946, he spent the rest of a nine-year career as a right-handed infielder who covered all four positions for Detroit, Washington, the St. Louis Browns, Boston and Philadelphia, batting .243 with 547 hits in 703 games. He was the Athletics' regular second baseman in 1950 and their regular third baseman in 1952, and his .306 in 1951 was the only time he cleared .300 anywhere. He managed Buffalo in 1954 and coached third base for Detroit from 1955 through 1960, including one game as the Tigers' interim manager, before two turns as a big-league skipper and scouting work for the Braves and the expansion Expos. From 1971 to 1980 he was president of the Double-A Southern League, whose attendance grew more than fivefold under him. The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame took him in 1975.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #121 are tracked individually: 121a - No Green Tint and 121b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 121a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 218 | 0 | 3 | 69 | 102 | 26 | 7 | 7 | 4 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 121b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 62 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 22 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 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. 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
Team card: #476 Baltimore Orioles Team
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- #34 Johnny Temple
- #45 Brooks Robinson
- #64 Russ Snyder
- #75 Milt Pappas
- #99 John Powell
- #112 Hank Foiles
- #134 Billy Hoeft
- #165 Jackie Brandt
- #189 Dick Hall
- #203 Jack Fisher
- #221 Bill Short
- #245 Ron Hansen
- #272 Earl Robinson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #121 card?
It is card #121 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Hitchcock of the Baltimore Orioles. The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
Does 1962 Topps #121 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 121a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 121b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #121 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.