1962 Topps #344 Ed Bauta
About Ed Bauta
Bauta's tired winter-ball arm bounced back in the spring, and he spent the first half of 1962 with St. Louis. He won his only decision of the year on May 26, when Curt Flood's game-ending single beat Milwaukee 4-3 and left his ERA at 1.04, and he was still at 1.88 through 14 appearances on June 10. Then the Pirates and Phillies got to him, six earned runs in two innings against Pittsburgh on June 30 pushing the mark to 5.01, and St. Louis sent him to Triple-A Atlanta, where he went 5-2 with a 1.96 ERA for an International League champion. His card is 1962 Topps #344, a fourth-series Cardinals issue, and it is his recognised rookie card.
Eduardo Bauta Galvez (January 6, 1935 - July 6, 2022) was a Cuban-born right-handed relief pitcher from the town of Florida, in Camaguey Province, who cut sugar cane as a boy, was scouted at a two-day tryout in Camaguey city in December 1955 and signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates weeks later for a $500 bonus. The Pirates traded him to St. Louis in May 1960 in the deal that brought them Vinegar Bend Mizell; the same trade sent second baseman Julian Javier, blocked in Pittsburgh by Bill Mazeroski, to a dozen seasons with the Cardinals. Bauta pitched for St. Louis from 1960 through part of 1963 and finished with the New York Mets into 1964, all 97 of his big-league games in relief: 6-6, 11 saves, 89 strikeouts and a 4.35 ERA in 149 innings. Listed at 6-foot-3 and gangly, he lived on a sinker thrown from three-quarters and below. Until he died he still got fan mail and card-signing requests about two Mets footnotes - he pitched in the final regular-season game at the Polo Grounds and lost the first game at Shea Stadium - and he kept pitching into his late thirties, going 23-5 with 23 complete games for Poza Rica of the Mexican League in 1973.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 163 | 0 | 6 | 59 | 67 | 24 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 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
Team card: #61 St. Louis Cardinals Team
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- #50 Stan Musial
- #83 Larry Jackson
- #106 Carl Sawatski
- #118 Julian Javier
- #149 Bob Duliba
- #167 Tim McCarver
- #198 Johnny Keane
- #202 Carl Warwick
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- #266 John Anderson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #344 card?
It is card #344 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Bauta of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Is 1962 Topps #344 a rookie card?
Yes - #344 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Ed Bauta.
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.