1962 Topps #354 Roman Mejias
About Roman Mejias
Mejias was Houston's Opening Day right fielder on April 10, 1962, batting third in the first game the Colt .45s ever played, and he answered with two three-run homers -- the first off Don Cardwell -- for six runs batted in during an 11-2 rout of the Cubs. That first blast is the first home run in franchise history. He ran off a 16-game hitting streak starting May 25, played a career-high 146 games, and led Houston in hits, home runs, runs batted in, batting average, stolen bases and slugging, yet was passed over for the All-Star team while standing third in the league in home runs. Card 354 is a plain fourth-series card picturing him with Houston.
Roman Mejias Gomez, born August 9, 1925 at the Central Manuelita sugar mill in Cuba's Las Villas province, was a right-handed outfielder who played nine big-league seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Colt .45s and Boston Red Sox, in 1955 and from 1957 through 1964. American records listed his birthplace for decades as nearby Abreus. Pirates scout George Sisler signed him out of a 1953 Havana tryout camp, and Mejias was Pittsburgh's Opening Day right fielder as a 1955 rookie, ahead of his roommate Roberto Clemente; once Clemente claimed the job he settled in as a spare outfielder behind Clemente, Bill Virdon and Bob Skinner. Houston took him in the October 1961 National League expansion draft and finally played him every day. A six-foot, 175-pound right fielder remembered for his warmth and enthusiasm, he batted .254 with 449 hits, 54 home runs and 202 runs batted in across 627 games. He was a player-coach for Boston's Triple-A Toronto club in 1965, closed his playing career with the Sankei Atoms in Japan in 1966, and was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in exile in 1997. He died in Sun City, California, on February 22, 2023, at 97.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 207 | 0 | 12 | 93 | 75 | 21 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 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. 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:
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- #23 Norm Larker
- #44 Don Taussig
- #74 Bob Lillis
- #126 Al Cicotte
- #156 Merritt Ranew
- #177 Bobby Shantz
- #204 Johnny Weekly
- #227 Bobby Tiefenauer
- #248 Bob Aspromonte
- #278 Ken Johnson
- #304 Dick Farrell
- #332 Don Buddin
- #373 Al Heist
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #354 card?
It is card #354 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roman Mejias of the Houston Colt .45's.
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.