1962 Topps #177 Bobby Shantz
About Bobby Shantz
Houston took Shantz from the Pirates in the October 1961 expansion draft, and on April 10, 1962, he threw the first pitch in Colt .45's history, beating the Cubs 11-2 with a complete game before 25,271 at Colt Stadium. A month later, on May 7, Houston shipped him to St. Louis for John Anderson and Carl Warwick. Working entirely in relief after that, he put up a career-best 1.95 ERA for the year, 1.31 in Houston and 2.18 as a Cardinal, and collected the sixth of his eight Gold Gloves. Number 177 places him with the Colt .45's. It is an ordinary-series card, and it comes two ways, with and without a green tint.
Bobby Shantz, born September 26, 1925, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was a left-handed pitcher who spent sixteen major league seasons, from 1949 through 1964, with the Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics, New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Colt .45's, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. Listed at 5-foot-6 and about 140 pounds, he was told all his life he was too small to pitch, then went 24-7 in 1952 to lead the American League in wins and take the Most Valuable Player Award for a fourth-place Athletics club. A broken left wrist that September and a shoulder injury the following May ended his run as a frontline starter, and after 1957 he was never again a regular member of a rotation. He still had plenty left: a three-time All-Star, he led the majors in earned run average for the 1957 Yankees, won a World Series title with the 1958 Yankees, and took the first Gold Glove Award ever given to a pitcher in 1957, the start of eight straight, four in each league. He retired at 119-99 with a 3.38 ERA. Philadelphia later put him on its Baseball Wall of Fame and in its Sports Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #177 are tracked individually: 177a - No Green Tint and 177b - Green Tint. The difference is on the front of the card (green tint).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 177a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 212 | 0 | 3 | 64 | 86 | 33 | 14 | 12 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 177b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 71 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 28 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation. 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
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #12 Harry Craft
- #23 Norm Larker
- #44 Don Taussig
- #74 Bob Lillis
- #126 Al Cicotte
- #156 Merritt Ranew
- #204 Johnny Weekly
- #227 Bobby Tiefenauer
- #248 Bob Aspromonte
- #278 Ken Johnson
- #304 Dick Farrell
- #332 Don Buddin
- #354 Roman Mejias
- #373 Al Heist
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #177 card?
It is card #177 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bobby Shantz of the Houston Colt .45's.
Does 1962 Topps #177 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 177a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 177b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #177 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.