1962 Topps #559 Mike Higgins
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 Mike Higgins
This manager card is number 559, a seventh-series card near the back of the set - a high number, and the tougher of his two Topps issues from the decade. The season it covers was his last in uniform: Boston went 76-84 and slid to eighth in the American League, though Earl Wilson and Bill Monbouquette each threw a no-hitter and Pete Runnels batted .326. Since the fall of 1960 Higgins had controlled the club's player personnel without carrying the general manager's title, and on October 6, 1962 the Red Sox made it official, promoting the 53-year-old to executive vice president and general manager while bringing Johnny Pesky up to take the dugout.
Michael Franklin Higgins, called Pinky from infancy for his rosy complexion, was a right-handed-hitting third baseman born in Red Oak, Texas in 1909. He spent three years at the University of Texas, signed with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930 and took over third base full time in 1933, hitting .314 that year and .330 the next. Traded to Boston in December 1936 for Billy Werber, he batted .302 and .303 with 106 RBIs in each of his first two Red Sox seasons, and in June 1938 tied the major league record with base hits in 12 consecutive at-bats. Dealt to Detroit after that season, he held the Tigers' third-base job for six years and hit .333 in the 1940 World Series, a seven-game loss to Cincinnati. The Tigers sold him back to Boston in May 1946, and he started all seven games of that fall's World Series defeat to St. Louis. A three-time All-Star, he retired at .292 with 140 home runs and 1,075 RBIs in 1,802 games, then managed in the Red Sox farm system before running the big club across two stints between 1955 and 1962 and moving upstairs as general manager.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 303 | 1 | 19 | 117 | 110 | 44 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 38 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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: #334 Boston Red Sox Team
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #3 Pete Runnels
- #35 Don Schwall
- #81 Jim Pagliaroni
- #101 Carroll Hardy
- #117 Gary Geiger
- #153 Pumpsie Green
- #187 Gene Conley
- #201 Ike Delock
- #225 Frank Malzone
- #244 Don Gile
- #276 Hal Kolstad
- #301 Galen Cisco
- #336 Billy Muffett
- #345 Chuck Schilling
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #559 card?
It is card #559 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mike Higgins of the Boston Red Sox. 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.
Why is #559 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.