1962 Topps #209 Jim Fregosi
About Jim Fregosi
The Angels sent the 20-year-old back to Dallas-Fort Worth to open 1962, and he hit .283 there over 64 games before returning to Los Angeles in late June. He was a reserve at first, then claimed the starting shortstop job by mid-August and finished at .291 in 175 at-bats with 49 starts in the field. His 1962 Topps card, number 209 in the set's third series, is a recognized rookie card, his first in the Topps run.
Jim Fregosi was born in San Francisco on April 4, 1942 and won 11 varsity letters at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo before signing with the Boston Red Sox for a $20,000 bonus. Left unprotected after one Class-D season, he was taken 35th overall by the expansion Los Angeles Angels in the December 1960 expansion draft and debuted with them in September 1961. Fregosi became the young franchise's first star at shortstop, making six All-Star teams, winning a Gold Glove and leading the American League in triples across an eleven-year run with the Angels. On December 10, 1971 he was traded to the New York Mets in the four-player deal that sent Nolan Ryan to California, and he later played for the Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates before retiring in 1978 with 1,726 hits. He managed the Angels, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays, guiding the 1979 Angels to their first postseason and the 1993 Phillies to a National League pennant. The Angels retired his number 11 and placed him in the club's own Angels Hall of Fame. He died in 2014.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 332 | 1 | 9 | 88 | 99 | 59 | 35 | 40 | 1 |
| SGC | 34 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #209 card?
It is card #209 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Fregosi of the Los Angeles Angels.
Is 1962 Topps #209 a rookie card?
Yes - #209 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Jim Fregosi.
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.