1962 Topps #459 Ed Bailey
About Ed Bailey
The 1962 season handed Bailey the pennant he had just missed in Cincinnati. He and fellow left-handed hitter Tom Haller shared the San Francisco catching, Bailey starting 65 games to Haller's 83, and between them they produced 35 home runs and 100 RBI from behind the plate. Bailey's own line was 17 homers and a .232 average in 254 at-bats, plus three pinch-hit home runs, one of them a grand slam. The Giants caught the Dodgers on the final day, won the playoff for the flag, and lost a seven-game World Series to the Yankees, with Bailey's only Series hit a Game Three home run. Card 459 belongs to the sixth series.
Lonas Edgar Bailey Jr., born April 15, 1931, in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, was a left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing catcher who gave up a University of Tennessee basketball scholarship to sign with Cincinnati. Two years of Army ball and a September 1953 debut later, he won the starting job in 1956 and turned in his career year: .300 with 28 home runs, 75 RBI and the league lead in baserunners caught stealing. He stayed Cincinnati's regular catcher until an April 1961 trade sent him to the San Francisco Giants, and he later caught for the Milwaukee Braves, the Giants again and the Chicago Cubs before the California Angels released him in May 1966. He made the National League All-Star squad in five seasons, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1963, and in the stretch when each summer held two All-Star Games he played in six of them. In 1957 he led National League catchers by throwing out 46 percent of base stealers. Across fourteen seasons he batted .256 with 155 home runs and 540 RBI. Teammates called him 'Gar,' short for Edgar, though teammate Jim Brosnan suspected it stood for garrulous. He went home to Knoxville after baseball and served twelve years on the city council.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 153 | 0 | 6 | 49 | 47 | 30 | 10 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 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.
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
Team card: #226 San Francisco Giants Team
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #9 Jim Davenport
- #18 Managers' Dream
- #33 Don Larsen
- #40 Orlando Cepeda
- #71 Dick LeMay
- #107 Mike McCormick
- #133 Felipe Alou
- #155 Stu Miller
- #188 Chuck Hiller
- #199 Gaylord Perry
- #231 Ernie Bowman
- #247 Joe Pignatano
- #260 Bill Pierce
- #300 Willie Mays
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #459 card?
It is card #459 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Bailey of the San Francisco Giants.
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.