1962 Topps #302 John Edwards
About John Edwards
Card #302, a fourth-series issue, is Edwards' Topps rookie card. He reached Cincinnati in late June 1961, after the Reds shipped Ed Bailey to San Francisco, and split the catching with Jerry Zimmerman on a club that ended a 20-year pennant drought. He hit only .186 with 2 home runs in 52 games, then went 4-for-11 in the World Series and drove in both of his runs in Game Two at Yankee Stadium, the Reds' only win of the five.
John Alban Edwards, a 6-foot-4 catcher out of Ohio State University, signed with the Cincinnati Reds in 1959 on a $50,000 contract his twin brother negotiated, and reached the majors in June 1961 after the Reds traded catcher Ed Bailey to San Francisco. Over a 14-year career with the Reds (1961-1967), St. Louis Cardinals (1968) and Houston Astros (1969-1974) he made three straight All-Star teams (1963-1965) and won National League Gold Gloves at catcher in 1963 and 1964, the first two any Cincinnati backstop had won. Prized for his glove and throwing arm, he caught Jim Maloney's 10-inning no-hitter in August 1965 and Ray Washburn's in September 1968, and led National League catchers in fielding percentage three straight years with Houston. His 1,135 putouts in 1969 were the most any catcher had ever made in a season, a record that stood for decades. Edwards finished with 1,106 hits, 81 home runs and a .242 average in 1,470 games, then worked as an engineer and plant manager in Houston's oil-services industry until retiring in 2002.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 146 | 0 | 6 | 55 | 51 | 18 | 9 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 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. 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #302 card?
It is card #302 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing John Edwards of the Cincinnati Reds.
Is 1962 Topps #302 a rookie card?
Yes - #302 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of John Edwards.
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.