1962 Topps #254 Gordon Windhorn
About Gordon Windhorn
Windhorn arrived in Kansas City in a trade with the Dodgers after the 1961 season and opened 1962 in the Athletics lineup, but managed just three hits in 19 at-bats before the club dealt him to the Los Angeles Angels on May 12. He played 40 more games for the Angels, 54 in all for the year, and that was the end of his major-league time; Triple-A followed, then six seasons in Japan. Topps pictured him as an Athletic on card #254 in the set's third print series, and it is a recognized rookie card, issued three years after his September 1959 debut with the Yankees.
Gordon Windhorn was a right-handed outfielder born December 19, 1933 in Watseka, Illinois, who grew up in Phoenix and won three individual Arizona state high school track titles, in the long jump and both hurdles events. He signed with the New York Giants organization in 1952 after going to a tryout camp mainly to keep a friend company, then worked through the Giants, Red Sox and Yankees farm systems. His best minor-league season came with Denver in 1958, when his .328 average led the American Association; that winter he wrote Casey Stengel asking why it had not earned him a spring-training invitation. It did: he hit .348 in camp, went back to Denver anyway, and reached the majors with the Yankees on September 10, 1959. Traded to the Dodgers in 1960, he appeared in parts of three big-league seasons - 1959, 1961 and 1962 - for the Yankees, Dodgers, Kansas City Athletics and Los Angeles Angels, batting .176 over 95 games with two home runs, struck on back-to-back days against the Phillies in September 1961. He then played six seasons in Japan for the Hankyu Braves from 1964 through 1969, batting .255 with 86 home runs in 641 games. He died May 21, 2022 in Danville, Virginia, at 88.
Sources: Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 195 | 0 | 11 | 74 | 80 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 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: #384 Kansas City Athletics Team
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- #184 Haywood Sullivan
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #254 card?
It is card #254 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Gordon Windhorn of the Kansas City Athletics.
Is 1962 Topps #254 a rookie card?
Yes - #254 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Gordon Windhorn.
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.