1962 Topps #526 Hal Woodeshick
About Hal Woodeshick
Card No. 526 is a short-printed high number from the seventh series. Houston bought his contract from Denver, Detroit's American Association club, in October 1961, and the Colt .45s carried him into their first Opening Day. In the franchise's second game, on April 11, he went eight innings of a 2-0 win over the Cubs, the club's first shutout, with Turk Farrell finishing it. A throat infection sidelined him for three weeks from May 20, and he won once in his last ten decisions to finish 5-16 despite career highs of 26 starts and 139 1/3 innings. His back was so bad by season's end that his wife had to drive him home to Pennsylvania.
Harold Joseph Woodeshick, born August 24, 1932, in Askam, Pennsylvania, in the coal country outside Wilkes-Barre, signed with the Phillies at seventeen and needed a decade to stick. Two Army years as a military policeman and a long minor league apprenticeship slowed him; brief looks with Detroit in 1956 and Cleveland in 1958 led only to two seasons of swing work for the original Washington Senators. Expansion remade the left-hander's career. Drafted by the new Senators in December 1960, traded back to Detroit in June 1961 and sold to Houston that October, he became one of only three players to play two straight seasons for two different expansion teams in their inaugural campaigns. The Colt .45s turned him into their first true closer in 1963, a 1.97 ERA earning his only All-Star selection, and he led the National League with 23 saves in 1964. Traded to St. Louis in 1965, he finished on the 1967 World Series champion Cardinals and retired at 44-62 with 61 saves and a 3.56 ERA. He was nicknamed the Switchman for his knack of turning out the lights on opposing batters, and died in Houston in 2009 at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 283 | 0 | 17 | 121 | 100 | 27 | 12 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 29 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
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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- #44 Don Taussig
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- #126 Al Cicotte
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- #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 #526 card?
It is card #526 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Woodeshick of the Houston Colt .45's.
Why is #526 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-598) from the seventh print series, distributed last and in the smallest quantity - the toughest cards in the set and home to all 42 short prints and the Rookie Parade. It is also a short print card (42 cards, all in 523-598). Printed in smaller quantity than the rest of the seventh series.
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.