1962 Topps #511 Bubba Phillips
About Bubba Phillips
Card 511 landed in Topps' sixth series of 1962, still picturing Phillips as an Indian on the strength of his 18-homer breakout. The power did not carry over - 10 home runs and 54 RBIs, with his average easing from .264 to .258 - but the glove got better. He worked 145 games at third base and made only 10 errors, down from 19 the year before, for a .977 fielding mark, and his 148 games played were the most of any season he had. The strangest moment of the year came on June 17, when Phillips, Jerry Kindall, and Jim Mahoney hit back-to-back-to-back home runs off Bill Stafford.
John Melvin "Bubba" Phillips was a third baseman and outfielder, born in West Point, Mississippi on February 24, 1928, who spent ten seasons in the majors from 1955 through 1964 with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians. A football standout at Macon High School and a team captain and Little All-America running back at Mississippi Southern College, he chose baseball over a professional football future with the San Francisco 49ers and signed with the Detroit organization in 1948, then spent 1953 and 1954 in the Army before reaching the big leagues in 1955. After early years as a reserve outfielder, he moved to third base with the White Sox in 1957 and stayed at the position, helping Chicago win the 1959 American League pennant and going 3-for-10 in a six-game World Series loss to the Dodgers. Traded to Cleveland that December, he had his best year in 1961, leading American League third basemen with 18 home runs. He closed out his career back in Detroit in 1963 and 1964 and retired with a .255 average, 62 home runs, and 356 RBIs in 1,062 games. Mississippi elected him to its Sports Hall of Fame in 1972.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 187 | 0 | 2 | 67 | 67 | 31 | 14 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 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
Team card: #537 Cleveland Indians Team
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- #15 Dick Donovan
- #37 Tribe Hill Trio
- #49 Hal Jones
- #78 Gene Green
- #97 Tito Francona
- #123 Mike de la Hoz
- #145 Barry Latman
- #182 Bob Nieman
- #215 Woody Held
- #224 Don Rudolph
- #242 Mel McGaha
- #253 Harry Chiti
- #273 Gary Bell
- #292 Jerry Kindall
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #511 card?
It is card #511 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bubba Phillips of the Cleveland Indians.
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.