1962 Topps #26 Chris Cannizzaro
About Chris Cannizzaro
Card #26 opens the 1962 set's first series and shows Cannizzaro as an original Met. New York had spent its very first expansion pick on 32-year-old Hobie Landrith, then soured on him as opponents ran at will, and the job fell to the 24-year-old's arm rather than his bat. Farmed out when the hitting sagged, he came back to bat .268 the rest of the way against a team average of .240. The signature night came September 2 at the Polo Grounds: nursing a one-run ninth-inning lead, Stengel answered pinch-runner Julian Javier by sending Cannizzaro in cold behind the plate, and the relief catcher threw Javier out at second to save a rare Mets win. He finished at .241 in 59 games.
Christopher John Cannizzaro was a defense-first catcher who spent 13 major league seasons (1960-1974) with six clubs after the Cardinals signed him out of San Leandro High School in 1956. He debuted on April 17, 1960, facing Sandy Koufax in his first at-bat. Steady work came only through the league's two expansion clubs: the Mets took him 26th overall in the October 1961 expansion draft, and San Diego made him its everyday catcher in 1969. Cannizzaro caught the Padres' first game, a 2-1 win over Houston on April 8, 1969, and became the franchise's first All-Star. Never much of a hitter -- .235 with 18 home runs and 169 RBIs in 740 games -- he was prized for an arm that led the majors in caught-stealing percentage in 1962 and again in 1965. Casey Stengel called him "Canzoneri," apparently thinking of the 1930s boxer Tony Canzoneri. He later caught for the Cubs and Dodgers, coached Atlanta's bullpen from 1976 to 1978, then managed in the Angels' Class A chain. He died in San Diego on December 29, 2016.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 312 | 0 | 7 | 128 | 119 | 39 | 11 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 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
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- #7 Frank Thomas
- #29 Casey Stengel
- #85 Gil Hodges
- #94 Jay Hook
- #162 Sammy Drake
- #183 Roger Craig
- #213 Richie Ashburn
- #256 Elio Chacon
- #279 Hobie Landrith
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- #365 Charley Neal
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #26 card?
It is card #26 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Chris Cannizzaro of the New York Mets.
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.