1962 Topps #351 Braves' Backstops
On this card: Joe Torre, Del Crandall
About this card
This is one of the eleven combo cards in the set, each pairing two or three players under a headline rather than giving one man his own card - Managers' Dream (#18, Mantle and Mays), AL & NL Homer Kings (#401, Maris and Cepeda) and Rival League Relief Aces (#423, Face and Wilhelm) among them.
The story on this card
Topps gave card 351 to two men because Milwaukee's catching job was changing hands. Del Crandall had been the Braves' regular catcher for eight straight years from 1953, but a hurt throwing arm in May 1961 cost him most of that season and brought 20-year-old Joe Torre up from the minors; Torre caught well enough to finish second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. Crandall reclaimed the job in 1962 with Torre backing him up, which is just what Braves' Backstops means - the veteran and his heir on one Milwaukee card. It is a combination card from the set's fourth series.
Joe Torre was a nine-time All-Star catcher and third baseman who won the 1971 National League Most Valuable Player award and batting title with the Cardinals, then managed the Yankees to four World Series titles; he entered Cooperstown in 2014 as a manager. Del Crandall spent eight seasons as the Milwaukee Braves' regular catcher, an eight-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner whose arm and game-calling made him the National League's premier defensive backstop of the 1950s.
Sources: Wikipedia (Joe Torre) · Wikipedia (Del Crandall) · SABR BioProject (Del Crandall) · SABR BioProject (Joe Torre) · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 346 | 0 | 2 | 64 | 122 | 77 | 35 | 43 | 3 |
| SGC | 50 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 2 |
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 #351 card?
It is card #351 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Torre and Del Crandall. This is one of the eleven combo cards in the set, each pairing two or three players under a headline rather than giving one man his own card - Managers' Dream (#18, Mantle and Mays), AL & NL Homer Kings (#401, Maris and Cepeda) and Rival League Relief Aces (#423, Face and Wilhelm) among them.
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.