1962 Topps #443 Del Crandall
About Del Crandall
The arm came back and so did the bat. Crandall reclaimed the bulk of the catching from Torre, hit a career-high .297 with 8 home runs and 45 runs batted in over 107 games, earned his eighth and final All-Star selection and won his fourth Gold Glove in five years, and passed Roy Campanella for the National League career fielding-percentage record. The relationship had already frayed: general manager John McHale had asked him to work the spring without a contract because of the arm trouble, and Crandall took it as an insult. Topps pictured him twice with Milwaukee, both mid-series cards - #443 on his own and #351, a combination card he shares with Torre.
Delmar Wesley Crandall, born March 5, 1930 in Ontario, California, signed with the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent out of Fullerton Union High School and reached the majors at 19 in 1949, taking over for Bill Salkeld to become the youngest starting catcher in the game's history. After a two-year Army hitch during the Korean War he came back in 1953 to a franchise newly moved to Milwaukee, took the regular job from Walker Cooper and held it eight seasons, building a reputation as the era's best defensive catcher on a rifle arm and quick feet. He led National League catchers in assists six times, fielding percentage four times and putouts three times, was named to eight All-Star teams and played in eleven All-Star Games in the years of two a summer, and won four Gold Gloves. Crandall handled Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl through pennants in 1957 and 1958, homering in the deciding Game Seven of both World Series and helping Milwaukee win the 1957 title. A right-handed power hitter for a catcher, he cleared 20 home runs three times and finished in 1966 with 179 homers, 657 runs batted in and a .254 average. Milwaukee elected him to the Braves Hall of Fame in 2003.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 248 | 0 | 9 | 114 | 82 | 32 | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
More Del Crandall in this set: #351 Combo
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 #443 card?
It is card #443 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Del Crandall of the Milwaukee Braves.
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.