1962 Topps #163 Hot Corner Guardians
On this card: Clete Boyer, Billy Gardner
About this card
This is one of the eleven combo cards in the set, each pairing two or three players under a headline rather than giving one man his own card - Managers' Dream (#18, Mantle and Mays), AL & NL Homer Kings (#401, Maris and Cepeda) and Rival League Relief Aces (#423, Face and Wilhelm) among them.
The story on this card
Topps called #163 "Hot Corner Guardians" and gave it to the two men who covered third base in the Bronx: Clete Boyer and Billy Gardner of the world champion 1961 Yankees. Boyer owned the job under first-year manager Ralph Houk, working 141 games at third and starting 138 of them on a glove that far outshone his .224 bat. Gardner, traded from the Twins to New York in mid-June 1961 for pitcher Danny McDevitt, spelled him in 33 games there; his only October at-bat was a ninth-inning pinch-hit appearance in Game Two that ended in a line out to shortstop, the last out of Cincinnati's only win in the Series. A second-series card, it turns up with and without a green tint.
A slick-fielding third baseman for the Yankees and Braves, Clete Boyer won World Series rings in 1961 and 1962, threw runners out from his knees, and finally claimed a Gold Glove of his own in 1969 with Atlanta. Billy Gardner - slick-fielding infielder nicknamed Shotgun for his arm; led the American League in doubles and at-bats for the 1957 Orioles and won World Series rings with the 1954 Giants and 1961 Yankees.
Sources: Wikipedia (Clete Boyer) · Wikipedia (Billy Gardner) · SABR BioProject (Billy Gardner) · SABR BioProject (Clete Boyer)
Print variations
Two states of #163 are tracked individually: 163a - No Green Tint and 163b - Green Tint. The difference is on the front of the card (green tint).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 163a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 282 | 0 | 6 | 84 | 110 | 51 | 14 | 14 | 3 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 163b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 61 | 0 | 8 | 21 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation. 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: #251 New York Yankees Team
More New York Yankees cards:
- #1 Roger Maris
- #18 Managers' Dream
- #31 Tom Tresh
- #48 Ralph Terry
- #65 Bobby Richardson
- #88 Ralph Houk
- #93 John Blanchard
- #110 Bill Skowron
- #136 Babe Ruth Special: Babe Joins Yanks
- #137 Babe Ruth Special: Babe and Mgr. Huggins
- #138 Babe Ruth Special: The Famous Slugger
- #139a Hal Reniff
- #139b Hal Reniff
- #139c Babe Ruth Special: Babe Hits 60
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #163 card?
It is card #163 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Clete Boyer and Billy Gardner. This is one of the eleven combo cards in the set, each pairing two or three players under a headline rather than giving one man his own card - Managers' Dream (#18, Mantle and Mays), AL & NL Homer Kings (#401, Maris and Cepeda) and Rival League Relief Aces (#423, Face and Wilhelm) among them.
Does 1962 Topps #163 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 163a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 163b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #163 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.