1962 Topps #431 Bob Rodgers
About Bob Rodgers
1962 Topps #431 is Rodgers' recognized rookie card, a fifth-series issue from his first full season in the majors. He shattered the record for games caught by a rookie with 150, turned a club-record 14 double plays, and was behind the plate for Bo Belinsky's no-hitter against Baltimore at Chavez Ravine on May 5. At bat he hit .258 with 34 doubles and 61 RBIs in 155 games, leading the Angels in both doubles and sacrifice flies, and he finished second to Tom Tresh in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Robert Leroy "Buck" Rodgers, born August 16, 1938, in Delaware, Ohio, was a basketball star and six-time no-hit pitcher at Prospect High School before Ohio Wesleyan University converted him to catcher. He signed with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent in 1956, spent five years buried in a farm-system logjam of catchers, and was taken by the Los Angeles Angels in the 1960 expansion draft. Look magazine named him the American Association's top catcher at Dallas-Fort Worth in 1961, and he reached the majors that September, spending all nine of his big-league seasons, 1961 through 1969, with the franchise as it went from the Los Angeles Angels to the California Angels. A 6-foot-2 switch hitter scouted as a fine handler of pitchers, he caught Bo Belinsky's no-hitter in 1962 and was behind the plate when Tony Conigliaro was beaned in 1967, finishing with a .232 average, 704 hits, 288 RBIs and 31 home runs in 932 games. He then coached and managed for years, running the Milwaukee Brewers, Montreal Expos and California Angels and winning National League Manager of the Year in 1987.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 191 | 3 | 11 | 80 | 63 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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 #431 card?
It is card #431 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Rodgers of the Los Angeles Angels.
Is 1962 Topps #431 a rookie card?
Yes - #431 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Bob Rodgers.
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.