1962 Topps #122 Norm Bass
About Norm Bass
Topps placed Bass at #122 in the second series of 1962, right behind the best season he would ever have: 11-11 with a 4.69 ERA over 40 games and 23 starts in 1961, 170.2 innings and 74 strikeouts for Kansas City. He swung a bat that summer too, hitting the only home run of his major league career. It is a recognized rookie card, and it is a second-series number. Two collectible states live here, 122a without the green tint and 122b with it, so know which one you are looking at before you pay for either.
Norman Delaney Bass Jr., born January 21, 1939 in Laurel, Mississippi and raised in Vallejo, California, was a right-handed pitcher who signed with the Kansas City Athletics before the 1958 season and began in the Pioneer League at Pocatello. He reached the majors on April 23, 1961 at age 22, and across three seasons with Kansas City went 13-17 with a 5.32 ERA in 65 games, 34 of them starts, striking out 111. His rookie year gave him the stories he told the rest of his life: a strikeout of Mickey Mantle at Yankee Stadium, and home run number 27 for Roger Maris during the Yankee slugger's run at 61. Rheumatoid arthritis, which a doctor finally put a name to while Bass was still in his twenties, took the arm away, and his last big-league appearance came on April 26, 1963. The younger brother of Rams running back Dick Bass, he played defensive back for the AFL's Denver Broncos in 1964, one of fewer than 70 men to play both professional baseball and football. Table tennis came after that: a doubles bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games at age 61, and election to the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2018. He died on June 15, 2024.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #122 are tracked individually: 122a - No Green Tint and 122b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 122a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 194 | 0 | 2 | 65 | 93 | 22 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 122b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 67 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 24 | 16 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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
Team card: #384 Kansas City Athletics Team
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #13 Dick Howser
- #38 Gene Stephens
- #82 Deron Johnson
- #127 Pride of the A's
- #147 Bill Kunkel
- #168 Leo Posada
- #184 Haywood Sullivan
- #246 Art Ditmar
- #254 Gordon Windhorn
- #275 Norm Siebern
- #305 Jerry Lumpe
- #333 Frank Cipriani
- #342 Ed Rakow
- #357 Jerry Walker
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #122 card?
It is card #122 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Norm Bass of the Kansas City Athletics.
Is 1962 Topps #122 a rookie card?
Yes - #122 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Norm Bass.
Does 1962 Topps #122 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 122a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 122b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #122 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.