1962 Topps #156 Merritt Ranew
About Merritt Ranew
Topps put Ranew on card #156 in the second series, a plain mid-number, and it is his recognized rookie card. The season behind it was a busy one: he appeared in 63 games through July 15, starting 45 of them at catcher for the brand new Houston Colt .45s, before six weeks back at Triple-A Oklahoma City and a September recall. He finished at .234 in 71 games with four home runs and eight triples, all but one of the nine he would hit in the majors. Two collectible states of #156 exist, one without the green tint and one with it.
Merritt Thomas Ranew, born May 10, 1938 in Albany, Georgia, was a left-handed hitting catcher who spent 15 seasons in professional baseball, five of them in the major leagues. Out of Lee County High School in Leesburg, he signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and climbed their farm system for five years, batting .347 at Triple-A Louisville in 1961 for his third straight season over .300. On October 10, 1961 Houston took him 17th overall, its ninth selection, in the expansion draft that stocked the Colt .45s. He caught for Houston in 1962, was traded to the Chicago Cubs the next spring, and later passed through the Braves, Angels and Seattle organizations before a last big league turn with the 1969 Seattle Pilots. A bat to the head in a 1966 minor league brawl nearly killed him and cost him a full season. In 269 games he batted .247 with 147 hits, 20 doubles, nine triples, eight home runs and 54 runs batted in. He retired in 1971, then became a well known quarter horse and cutting horse trainer and professional rider in Georgia, Florida and Texas, and co-owned a nightclub in Albany. He died in Valdosta, Georgia on October 18, 2011.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #156 are tracked individually: 156a - No Green Tint and 156b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 156a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 235 | 0 | 16 | 95 | 76 | 30 | 11 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 156b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 95 | 0 | 14 | 31 | 26 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 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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Related cards
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #12 Harry Craft
- #23 Norm Larker
- #44 Don Taussig
- #74 Bob Lillis
- #126 Al Cicotte
- #177 Bobby Shantz
- #204 Johnny Weekly
- #227 Bobby Tiefenauer
- #248 Bob Aspromonte
- #278 Ken Johnson
- #304 Dick Farrell
- #332 Don Buddin
- #354 Roman Mejias
- #373 Al Heist
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #156 card?
It is card #156 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Merritt Ranew of the Houston Colt .45's.
Is 1962 Topps #156 a rookie card?
Yes - #156 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Merritt Ranew.
Does 1962 Topps #156 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 156a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 156b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #156 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.