1962 Topps #588 Birdie Tebbetts
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 Birdie Tebbetts
Card 588 sits in the 1962 set's seventh series, a high number carrying Tebbetts's manager card in a Milwaukee cap. He had taken the Braves job the previous September, when the club fired Chuck Dressen and pulled Tebbetts out of its front office to finish the schedule. Milwaukee was still stocked with Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock, Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette, yet the 1962 Braves went 86-76 and landed fifth in the National League, 15 1/2 games behind San Francisco. It was his only full season running the club, and he was managing in Cleveland by the following spring.
Birdie Tebbetts caught for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians from 1936 to 1952 and was rated the best catcher in the American League in the late 1940s. He did not hit for power and he lacked speed, but he was an exceptional receiver, a smart handler of pitchers and a relentless needler of opposing hitters. Fourteen big league seasons left him with exactly 1,000 hits and a .270 average along with four All-Star selections, and three further seasons went to Army Air Corps service in World War II. He managed the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1954 until he resigned in August 1958, and the 91-63 third-place club he ran in 1956 made him Manager of the Year and landed him on the cover of Time the following July. An executive job with the Milwaukee Braves came next, then a return to the dugout with Milwaukee and Cleveland. He scouted for close to three decades after his managing days, working for the Mets, Yankees and Orioles, and in a 1969 fan poll he was voted the best catcher in Red Sox history.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 410 | 0 | 19 | 203 | 126 | 39 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 54 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #158 Milwaukee Braves Team
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #30 Ed Mathews
- #63 Tony Cloninger
- #76 Howie Bedell
- #100 Warren Spahn
- #109 Bob Shaw
- #130 Frank Bolling
- #174 Carl Willey
- #186 Mack Jones
- #211 Midway Masters
- #218 Joe Torre
- #239 Cecil Butler
- #259 Lou Klimchock
- #265 Joe Adcock
- #289 Mike Krsnich
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #588 card?
It is card #588 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Birdie Tebbetts of the Milwaukee Braves. 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.
Why is #588 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.
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.