1962 Topps #429 Billy O'Dell
About Billy O'Dell
Card #429, a series-5 base issue, reports a 1961 season the Giants split between rotation and bullpen: 7-5 with a 3.59 ERA and 110 strikeouts in 130 innings across 46 games, only 14 of them starts. His best day came July 4 at Wrigley Field, where he took over in the first inning and threw nine innings of two-hit relief, retiring 26 of the 29 Cubs he faced and striking out a career-high 13 in a 19-3 rout. That winter he asked Alvin Dark to start him more often or trade him.
William Oliver O'Dell was a left-handed pitcher out of Clemson who signed with Baltimore in June 1954 as their first bonus baby, reaching the majors without a day in the minors. Army service cost him 1955 and most of 1956; back in the rotation from 1957, he made the American League All-Star team in 1958 and 1959. In the 1958 game he retired all nine National League batters he faced, among them Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, closing out a 4-3 win and taking the game's most valuable player honor. Traded to San Francisco in November 1959, he peaked at 19-14 in 1962, then finished with the Braves and Pirates at 105-100 with a 3.29 ERA over thirteen seasons. Ballplayers called him "Digger," after the friendly undertaker of radio and television's The Life of Riley. He farmed near Newberry, South Carolina, worked in textile public relations, coached American Legion ball, and entered the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 1976. He died there in 2018 at 85.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 161 | 0 | 12 | 80 | 42 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 3 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 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 #429 card?
It is card #429 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy O'Dell of the San Francisco Giants.
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.