1962 Topps #96 Eli Grba
About Eli Grba
The Angels moved into Dodger Stadium for 1962 and went 86-76 to finish third, one of only two expansion clubs ever to post a winning record in a second season. Grba took 29 starts among 40 outings and logged 176.1 innings with a 4.54 earned run average and 90 strikeouts, finishing 8-9. His card here, #96, comes from the first print series and shows him with Los Angeles.
Eli Grba was a right-handed pitcher born August 9, 1934 in Chicago to Serbian immigrants Joseph and Eva Grba. His father left early and his mother raised him alone, waiting tables by day and working a factory shift at night. He starred in three sports at Bowen High School on the South Side, and after graduating in 1952 he signed with the Boston Red Sox, who had scouted him through Chuck Koney. Boston sent him to the New York Yankees in March 1957, trading him with outfielder Gordon Windhorn for Bill Renna, and the Army took the next two years before he reached the majors on July 10, 1959. He pitched for New York in 1959 and 1960 and got into one game of the 1960 World Series as a pinch runner. Left unprotected that winter, he became the first player ever chosen in a major league expansion draft when the Los Angeles Angels called his name, and he started the first game in Angels history. He pitched for Los Angeles through 1963, then wound down in the minors with a 1966 stop in the Mexican League, and later scouted, coached and managed in the minors until 1997. He finished 28-33 with a 4.48 ERA, and died January 14, 2019.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 228 | 0 | 7 | 95 | 88 | 26 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 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 #96 card?
It is card #96 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Eli Grba of the Los Angeles Angels.
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.