1962 Topps #183 Roger Craig
About Roger Craig
A charter member of the expansion New York Mets, Craig started the first game in franchise history and lost it 11-4 at St. Louis. He carried the rotation from there, making 33 starts among 42 appearances, finishing 13 of them, and logging 233 innings for a club that went 40-120. His 10-24 record led the National League in losses, while his 4.51 ERA told a fairer story about how he actually pitched. Number 183 comes out of the second print series. It does exist two ways, one copy carrying the green tint and one without it, so a complete Craig run from this set needs both.
Roger Lee Craig was a right-handed pitcher born February 17, 1930, in Durham, North Carolina. He left North Carolina State after a year on a basketball scholarship, signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, lost 1952 and 1953 to Army service during the Korean War, and reached the majors on July 17, 1955 with a complete-game win at Ebbets Field. He won Game 5 of that year's World Series as Brooklyn claimed its only title, and pitched for the 1959 champion Los Angeles Dodgers after the move west. Taken by the expansion New York Mets in the October 1961 draft, he became the enduring face of their early struggles, absorbing two 20-loss seasons while still working as a complete-game workhorse. He relieved brilliantly for the 1964 world champion Cardinals, then closed out with Cincinnati and Philadelphia, finishing 74-98 with a 3.83 ERA over twelve seasons. Known afterward as the teacher of the split-finger fastball to Jack Morris and Mike Scott, he coached the 1984 champion Tigers and managed the Giants to the 1989 National League pennant. The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 1985. He died June 4, 2023, in San Diego.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #183 are tracked individually: 183a - No Green Tint and 183b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 183a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 321 | 0 | 11 | 119 | 132 | 38 | 8 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 183b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 37 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #183 card?
It is card #183 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roger Craig of the New York Mets.
Does 1962 Topps #183 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 183a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 183b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #183 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.