1962 Topps #419 Bob Bruce
About Bob Bruce
Number 419 sits deep in the fifth series and is his first Houston card, issued after Detroit sent Bruce and Manny Montejo to the brand-new Colt .45s for veteran Sam Jones on December 1, 1961. The back has little to work with: an injury-shortened 1961 of 1-2, a 4.43 ERA, 14 games and 44.2 innings, six of those appearances starts, with a Triple-A stop at Denver mixed in. Bruce always called the deal the best thing that could have happened to him, crediting Colt .45s coach Cot Deal as the finest mentor he ever worked under. He learned of the trade while pitching winter ball in Puerto Rico.
Robert James Bruce was born May 16, 1933, a birth the record books place in New York City and his family history places in Detroit; either way he grew up in Highland Park, the small city ringed by Detroit. He did not take baseball seriously until his senior year at Highland Park High, then won a scholarship to Alma College, where a 19-strikeout game against the University of Detroit brought scouts around. The Tigers signed the 6-foot-3 right-hander for a $20,000 bonus, and after Army service interrupted his climb he reached the majors on September 14, 1959. Bruce worked as a swingman in 50 games for Detroit before Houston acquired him for veteran Sam Jones on December 1, 1961, and the move to the expansion Colt .45s made him a rotation regular. He is remembered in Houston as the man who threw the first pitch in Astrodome history. Traded to Atlanta on the last day of 1966 in the package that brought Eddie Mathews to Houston, Bruce closed a nine-year, 219-game career with the Braves, finishing 49-71 with a 3.85 ERA, 733 strikeouts and six shutouts over 1,122.1 innings. He later ran his own real estate brokerage near Dallas, and died March 14, 2017, in Plano, Texas.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 205 | 0 | 10 | 85 | 74 | 26 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 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. 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
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- #23 Norm Larker
- #44 Don Taussig
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- #126 Al Cicotte
- #156 Merritt Ranew
- #177 Bobby Shantz
- #204 Johnny Weekly
- #227 Bobby Tiefenauer
- #248 Bob Aspromonte
- #278 Ken Johnson
- #304 Dick Farrell
- #332 Don Buddin
- #354 Roman Mejias
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #419 card?
It is card #419 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Bruce of the Houston Colt .45's.
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.