1962 Topps #208 Billy Martin
About Billy Martin
Martin reported to Twins camp in 1962 and was told by manager Sam Mele, a longtime friend, that rookie Bernie Allen had won the second-base job and that he was being released. Kansas City showed interest, but at 33 Martin chose to retire and took a scouting job from owner Calvin Griffith instead. His playing ledger closed at .257 with 64 home runs and 333 runs batted in across 11 seasons, with that one All-Star selection in 1956. Topps still gave him #208 with Minnesota in the third series, a card of a man who had already been released that spring and the last one in this run to show him as an active player.
Billy Martin broke in with the New York Yankees on April 18, 1950 and became Casey Stengel's scrappy second baseman on four world championship clubs, batting .333 across five World Series. He was the hitting star of the 1953 Series, tying a record with 12 hits and breaking Babe Ruth's mark with 23 total bases; the Babe Ruth Award went to him as the best player in the Series, the World Series MVP trophy not being created until 1955. Two years in the Army cost him 1954 and most of 1955, and his lone All-Star selection came in 1956. A brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in May 1957 gave general manager George Weiss his opening, and Martin was traded to Kansas City that June, then bounced through Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Minnesota before retiring with a .257 average and 64 home runs over 11 seasons. He scouted and coached for the Twins, then managed Minnesota, Detroit, Texas, Oakland and, in five separate stints, the Yankees, winning the 1977 World Series. The firings, most of them by George Steinbrenner, never stopped; he was killed when his truck went off an icy road on Christmas night 1989.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 431 | 0 | 11 | 94 | 119 | 91 | 51 | 65 | 0 |
| SGC | 66 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 1 |
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 #208 card?
It is card #208 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Martin of the Minnesota Twins.
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.