1962 Topps #492 Hal Smith
This is the Houston catcher Hal W. Smith, not the Hal Smith who caught for the Cardinals - two different players sharing a name.
About Hal Smith
Number 492 is Smith's first card with Houston, issued after Pittsburgh left him exposed and the Colt .45s took him in the expansion draft. He caught the first game the franchise ever played, on April 10, 1962, going 2-for-4 with a double and a home run in an 11-2 rout of the Cubs, then handled the bulk of the catching through the club's maiden National League season, 92 games behind the plate. His 12 home runs ranked third on the team, though the average sank to .235. The card belongs to the set's sixth print series.
Harold Wayne Smith was a right-handed catcher who appeared in 879 games over ten major league seasons from 1955 to 1964, filling in at third base and first base along the way. Signed by the New York Yankees out of high school in 1949, he never played an inning for them; a 17-player trade after the 1954 season sent him to Baltimore, where he opened 1955 as the Orioles' starting catcher and played a career-high 135 games. Traded to Kansas City in August 1956, he put up his best year at the plate in 1957, batting .303 with 26 doubles and 13 home runs. The Pirates acquired him after the 1959 season, and in 1960 he platooned behind the plate with left-handed-hitting Smoky Burgess, batting .295 with 11 home runs and 45 runs batted in. He is remembered for the three-run homer off Jim Coates in the eighth inning of Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, which put Pittsburgh ahead 9-7 an inning before Bill Mazeroski's walk-off settled it. Houston took him in the 1961 expansion draft, and he finished up with Cincinnati in 1964, closing with 715 hits, 58 home runs, 323 runs batted in and a .267 average. He died in 2020 at age 89.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 225 | 1 | 19 | 107 | 71 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 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.
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
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #12 Harry Craft
- #23 Norm Larker
- #44 Don Taussig
- #74 Bob Lillis
- #126 Al Cicotte
- #156 Merritt Ranew
- #177 Bobby Shantz
- #204 Johnny Weekly
- #227 Bobby Tiefenauer
- #248 Bob Aspromonte
- #278 Ken Johnson
- #304 Dick Farrell
- #332 Don Buddin
- #354 Roman Mejias
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #492 card?
It is card #492 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Smith of the Houston Colt .45's.
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.