1962 Topps #581 Mel Roach
About Mel Roach
Roach reached this card's Philadelphia team line by way of two winter deals. Chicago, where he hit .128 after the May 1961 trade, sent him to Cleveland that November for two minor leaguers, and Cleveland passed him to Philadelphia on March 20, 1962 for pitcher Ken Lehman and outfielder Tony Curry. He got into 65 games for Gene Mauch's seventh-place club, the busiest year of his career, but batted just .190. When Philadelphia assigned him to the minors that October he retired instead, at 29, for a banking job back home in Richmond. Card #581 is a high number in the seventh series of the 1962 Topps set.
Mel Roach was a Richmond, Virginia infielder and outfielder who spent parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Milwaukee Braves, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. A standout second baseman at the University of Virginia, he signed a large bonus contract with Milwaukee in July 1953, which under the bonus rule of the day forced the Braves to carry him on the big-league roster before he had played a single minor league game. Two years of Navy service delayed him further, and his professional career did not begin in earnest until 1957, when he came up in August and rode the bench for a world champion. He briefly looked like the heir apparent to Red Schoendienst at second base, batting .309 in 44 games in 1958 and .300 in 48 games in 1960. A collision at second base on August 3, 1958 wrecked his left knee, however, costing him the rest of that pennant-winning season and the World Series that followed, and leaving him short of range in the infield. He never recovered his earlier form, closing out his career as a utilityman and retiring after the 1962 season with a .238 average. Roach was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and died in 2023.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 389 | 0 | 18 | 185 | 137 | 32 | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 46 | 1 | 2 | 21 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
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 #581 card?
It is card #581 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mel Roach of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Why is #581 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-598) from the seventh print series, distributed last and in the smallest quantity - the toughest cards in the set and home to all 42 short prints and the Rookie Parade.
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.