1962 Topps #242 Mel McGaha
Manager card; McGaha never played in the major leagues.
About this card
The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
About Mel McGaha
Card 242 is one of the 1962 set's manager cards, a third-series slot showing McGaha with Cleveland in what turned out to be his only full season running a big-league club - and he is the rare skipper on a manager card who never played an inning in the majors. Promoted off the Indians' coaching staff at 35, the youngest manager in the game, he replaced Jimmie Dykes and had Cleveland tied with the Yankees for first place at the All-Star break. Then came a nine-game losing streak inside a 32-of-44 collapse, pinned by the press on his handling of the pitching staff. GM Gabe Paul told him he was through with two games left; McGaha left at 78-82, and the Indians finished 80-82, sixth in the ten-team American League.
Fred Melvin McGaha was born September 26, 1926, in Bastrop, Louisiana, and grew up in Mabelvale, Arkansas. He lettered in three sports at the University of Arkansas and returned an interception 70 yards in the 1948 Dixie Bowl, then left school with offers from the Los Angeles Rams, the New York Knicks and the St. Louis Cardinals. He took the last two, playing 51 games at guard for the Knicks in the BAA in 1948-49 and catching in the Cardinals' chain. Two injuries kept him out of the majors as a player: a 1948 bus crash that killed four Duluth Dukes teammates and their manager left his right shoulder badly separated, and he separated the left one in 1951. He retired after the 1958 season and managed Shreveport, Mobile and Toronto to titles, taking the 1960 International League and Sporting News minor league manager of the year honors. That carried him to Cleveland in 1962 and the Kansas City Athletics in 1964-65. He later managed in the Astros' chain, coached first base in Houston, ran the parks departments in Shreveport and Bossier City, and was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. He died February 3, 2002.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 186 | 2 | 9 | 78 | 71 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 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. 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: #537 Cleveland Indians Team
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #15 Dick Donovan
- #37 Tribe Hill Trio
- #49 Hal Jones
- #78 Gene Green
- #97 Tito Francona
- #123 Mike de la Hoz
- #145 Barry Latman
- #182 Bob Nieman
- #215 Woody Held
- #224 Don Rudolph
- #253 Harry Chiti
- #273 Gary Bell
- #292 Jerry Kindall
- #307 Jim Grant
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #242 card?
It is card #242 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mel McGaha of the Cleveland Indians. The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
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.