1962 Topps #571 Billy Klaus
About Billy Klaus
Washington sold Klaus to the Philadelphia Phillies on April 5, 1962, days before the season opened, putting him under Gene Mauch, another old Red Sox teammate from 1957. Mauch got him into 102 games at third, second, and shortstop for a club that went 81-80, and defended him late in the year: the average was not much, he said, but the key hits kept coming. Klaus hit .206 in 248 at-bats. Card number 571 belongs to Topps' seventh series, a short-printed high number, and shows him with the Phillies.
Billy Klaus was a scrappy, hard-nosed infielder who spent parts of eleven big league seasons at shortstop, third base, and second base after nearly a decade of minor league apprenticeship. Born in Spring Grove, Illinois, on December 9, 1928, he grew up on his grandfather's dairy farm and broke in with the Boston Braves in April 1952 before a blockbuster trade routed him through the New York Giants system to the Boston Red Sox. There in 1955, at 26, he was named the regular shortstop on June 5 and hit .283 with 60 runs batted in, drawing the sparkplug tag from Boston writers and finishing runner-up to Herb Score for American League Rookie of the Year. He stayed a Red Sox regular through 1957, shifting between third base and shortstop, before a reduced 1958 role led to a trade to Baltimore for Jim Busby. After stints with the Orioles, Senators, and Phillies, and a brief run with Japan's Chunichi Dragons in 1963, Klaus retired at .249 with 626 hits in 821 games. He managed in the minors, ran a painting business in Sarasota, Florida, and North Carolina, and was inducted into the Lake County High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 290 | 0 | 14 | 99 | 103 | 53 | 12 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 37 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 2 |
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 #571 card?
It is card #571 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Klaus of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Why is #571 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-598) from the seventh print series, distributed last and in the smallest quantity - the toughest cards in the set and home to all 42 short prints and the Rookie Parade. It is also a short print card (42 cards, all in 523-598). Printed in smaller quantity than the rest of the seventh series.
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.