1962 Topps #238 Norm Sherry
About Norm Sherry
Card #238 from print series 3 is a plain mid-set number, and the last card of the decade's Topps run to show Sherry in Dodger blue. He spent 1962 exactly where Walter Alston wanted him; the manager said that spring he was completely satisfied with Sherry as his second-string catcher. But the body kept failing him: a bad back held him to one appearance between July 4 and August 5, and a knee injury days later ended his season. He hit .182 in 88 at-bats while the Dodgers opened Dodger Stadium and then lost a three-game pennant playoff to the Giants. That October the club sold him to the New York Mets, with outfielder Dick Smith, for $60,000.
Norm Sherry was a right-handed catcher who played parts of five big league seasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets between 1959 and 1963. Born in New York City in 1931, he grew up in Los Angeles after his family moved west in the 1930s, and a Brooklyn Dodgers tryout in 1950 cost him a baseball scholarship to Southern California. Seven farm-system years, two in the Army and a run of injuries followed; he was 27 when he debuted in April 1959. He settled in as Walter Alston's second-string catcher behind John Roseboro from 1960 through 1962, now and then catching his younger brother Larry, the 1959 World Series MVP. Sherry is best remembered for a word to a wild Sandy Koufax in a 1961 exhibition at Orlando, telling him to stop trying to throw so hard, advice Koufax regarded as the turning point of his career. He hit .215 with 18 home runs, 69 RBIs and 107 hits in 194 games, then spent decades coaching and managing, including parts of the 1976 and 1977 seasons as California Angels manager and a 1978 assignment tutoring young Gary Carter behind the plate in Montreal. He was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and died in 2021 at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 286 | 0 | 12 | 147 | 96 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 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: #43 Los Angeles Dodgers Team
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #5 Sandy Koufax
- #32 John Roseboro
- #69 Phil Ortega
- #108 Willie Davis
- #129 Lee Walls
- #131 Pete Richert
- #175 Frank Howard
- #190 Wally Moon
- #197 Daryl Spencer
- #217 Walt Alston
- #280 Johnny Podres
- #297 Ron Perranoski
- #340 Don Drysdale
- #348 Larry Burright
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #238 card?
It is card #238 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Norm Sherry of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.