1962 Topps #483 Don McMahon
About Don McMahon
Card #483 sits deep in Topps' sixth series and is the last Topps card to show McMahon in a Milwaukee uniform. The Braves had left him unprotected in the expansion draft that stocked the Mets and the Colt.45's, and neither new club took him. Manager Birdie Tebbetts then barely used him, giving him two appearances before Milwaukee sold his contract to Houston on May 9, 1962 for a reported $30,000. McMahon made no secret of his bitterness on the way out, and his mother wrote to tell him to stop saying things about Tebbetts.
Donald John McMahon was a right-handed relief pitcher from Brooklyn, New York, signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent in 1950 and converted from third base to the mound in their farm system. He did not reach the majors until June 30, 1957, at age 27, after roughly five and a half years in the minors and two years in the Army, and he believed he was the first pitcher ever called up strictly as a reliever. Used almost entirely out of the bullpen, he appeared in 874 games, just two of them as a starter, and finished 90-68 with a 2.96 ERA, 1,003 strikeouts and 153 saves. He was a 1958 National League All-Star selection and won World Series rings with the 1957 Braves and the 1968 Tigers, also pitching for the Colt .45's, Indians, Red Sox, White Sox and Giants. Sold or traded six times between ages 32 and 39, he had a habit of pitching his best ball in his first season with a new club. He never spent a day on the disabled list, and he threw his last big league pitch in 1974 at age 44 while serving as the Giants pitching coach.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 198 | 0 | 7 | 78 | 82 | 17 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #483 card?
It is card #483 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don McMahon 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.