1962 Topps #151 Johnny Klippstein
About Johnny Klippstein
Card #151 sits in the second series, the one stretch of the set Topps ran through the presses twice, so it turns up both with and without the lime-green cast collectors hunt - two cards, not one, for the full run. It covers a rough 1961: for a Washington club that finished 61-100 and shared the cellar, Klippstein went 2-2 with a 6.78 ERA over 42 appearances and led the American League with 10 wild pitches. He was traded to Cincinnati that December, so the card already shows a Red.
John Calvin Klippstein was a right-handed pitcher who spent 18 seasons in the majors, from his 1950 debut with the Chicago Cubs to a last outing for the Detroit Tigers on May 27, 1967. Born October 17, 1927 in Washington, D.C., he was spotted at 15 at a Cardinals tryout camp in Appleton, Wisconsin, and signed the following spring. He pitched for the Cubs (1950-1954), Cincinnati (1955-1958, 1962), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958-1959), Cleveland (1960), Washington (1961), Philadelphia (1963-1964), Minnesota (1964-1966) and Detroit (1967), finishing 101-118 with a 4.24 ERA, 66 saves and 1,158 strikeouts in 1,967 2/3 innings, starting 161 of his 711 games and working out of the bullpen in his later years. Persistent wildness - 97 career wild pitches, with league-leading totals in 1952 and 1961 - earned him the nickname "The Wild Man of Borneo." On May 26, 1956 he held Milwaukee hitless for seven innings, walking seven; Hersh Freeman and Joe Black finished the ninth with the no-hitter still intact before the Braves broke through in the tenth and won it in the eleventh, and a 1991 rules change struck the game from the official no-hitter list. He reached the World Series with the 1959 Dodgers and again with the 1965 Twins. He died October 10, 2003, in Elgin, Illinois.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #151 are tracked individually: 151a - No Green Tint and 151b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 151a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 271 | 0 | 17 | 121 | 98 | 25 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 151b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 61 | 1 | 8 | 22 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 12 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 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. 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #151 card?
It is card #151 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Klippstein of the Cincinnati Reds.
Does 1962 Topps #151 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 151a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 151b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #151 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.