1962 Topps #554 Bubba Morton
About Bubba Morton
Morton opened 1962 buried on Detroit's bench, drawing only 19 plate appearances through the club's first 49 games. Then Al Kaline fractured his collarbone on May 26 and Bill Bruton pulled a muscle on June 10, and the door swung open: in only his second start of the year, on June 8, he went 4-for-6 against Washington. He appeared in 90 games, splitting the outfield between center and right, and batted .262 with a .366 on-base percentage and four home runs in 195 at-bats, the heaviest workload of his career. Card 554 sits in the seventh series, a short-printed high number, and it is the recognized Morton rookie card.
Wycliffe Nathaniel Morton, known as Bubba, was born December 13, 1931, in Washington, D.C., served four years in the Coast Guard as a radio operator, then enrolled at Howard University, where he majored in engineering and lettered in football and baseball. Detroit signed him in March 1955 as the third Black player in the organization's history, and he spent six seasons in the minors, opening 1957 as one of the first two Black players for the Durham Bulls and winning the Venezuelan winter-league batting title at .389 after the 1960 season. A right-handed spray hitter with speed and excellent defense, he made Detroit's roster in 1961 and played parts of seven big-league seasons as a platoon outfielder and pinch-hitter for the Tigers, Milwaukee Braves, and California Angels, finishing with a .267 average, 14 home runs, and 128 RBIs in 451 games. After a 1970 season in Japan with the Toei Flyers he settled in Seattle, and in December 1971 he was hired to run the University of Washington baseball program, becoming the school's first Black head coach in any sport; he held the job through 1976. He died in Seattle on January 14, 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 281 | 0 | 12 | 102 | 114 | 31 | 15 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 34 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 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 #554 card?
It is card #554 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bubba Morton of the Detroit Tigers.
Is 1962 Topps #554 a rookie card?
Yes - #554 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Bubba Morton.
Why is #554 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. It is also a short print card (42 cards, all in 523-598). Printed in smaller quantity than the rest of the seventh series.
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.