1962 Topps #225 Frank Malzone
About Frank Malzone
The best season of Malzone's career was 1962: a .283 average, 95 RBIs and 21 home runs, a personal high he never reached again, across 156 games. His .967 fielding mark at third was the best of any full season he played. The signature play came on June 26, when he reached back over the top of the visiting dugout for a backhanded catch of a foul ball in the eighth inning, saving Earl Wilson's no-hitter against the Angels. Card 225 comes from Topps' third series and shows him with the Red Sox at that peak.
Frank Malzone was born in the Bronx on February 28, 1930, the son of an Italian immigrant father from Salerno and an American-born mother. A New York Giants tryout told him he was too small, but Red Sox bird-dog scout Cy Phillips pushed his name up the chain, and Malzone signed out of Samuel Gompers High School to become its first graduate to reach the majors. Six minor-league seasons across eight years, interrupted by a dislocated ankle that cost him nearly all of 1950 and by two years in the Army, ended with his Boston debut on September 17, 1955. He took over third base in 1957, hit .292 with 103 RBIs, and won the inaugural Gold Glove at the position, the first of three straight. Eight All-Star selections followed, and he led American League third basemen in double plays five years running, tying Ken Keltner's record. Malzone batted .274 with 133 home runs and 728 RBIs in 1,441 games, closed his playing days with the 1966 California Angels, then scouted for Boston for 28 years. The Red Sox named him to the inaugural class of their own Hall of Fame in 1995. He died in Needham, Massachusetts, on December 29, 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 176 | 0 | 1 | 45 | 73 | 28 | 11 | 18 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
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: #334 Boston Red Sox Team
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #225 card?
It is card #225 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Malzone of the Boston Red Sox.
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.