1962 Topps #591 Rookie Parade Pitchers
On this card: Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz, Art Quirk, Ron Nischwitz
About this card
Cards #591-598 are the eight-card Rookie Parade that closes the set - three cards of pitchers, one of catchers, three of infielders and one of outfielders - printed in the scarce seventh series and short-printed on every number. Bob Uecker (#594), Sam McDowell and Dick Radatz (#591), Jim Bouton (#592), Bob Veale (#593) and Joe Pepitone, Phil Linz and Rich Rollins (#596) are among the names.
The story on this card
McDowell shuttled between Cleveland and Salt Lake City all year, working as a swingman around a late-May trip back to the minors and finishing 3-7 with a 6.06 ERA, 70 strikeouts and exactly 70 walks in 87.2 innings. The stuff was already frightening; the location was not. Card #591 is his entry in the 1962 Rookie Parade subset - a seventh-series short print, so it sits among the set's scarce high numbers, and it is his recognized rookie card. He shares the front with four other young arms: Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz, Art Quirk and Ron Nischwitz. Sam McDowell, 'Sudden Sam,' was a hard-throwing Cleveland Indians left-hander and six-time All-Star who led the American League in strikeouts five times, capping it with a 20-win, 304-strikeout 1970 that made him The Sporting News AL Pitcher of the Year.
Taylor threw 23 scoreless innings at Cleveland's spring camp in Tucson to win a rotation spot, then started the second game of the season at Fenway Park on April 11. He and Bill Monbouquette matched zeroes for 11 innings; in the 12th, Carl Yastrzemski tripled, two intentional walks loaded the bases, and Carroll Hardy ended it with a grand slam, a 4-0 loss. Taylor went 2-2 in eight games, four of them starts, before Cleveland sent him back to Triple-A after May 20. Card #591 is his recognized rookie card, a Rookie Parade entry short-printed in the high-number seventh and final series, shared with Sam McDowell, Dick Radatz, Art Quirk and Ron Nischwitz. Toronto right-hander who pitched 11 big-league seasons, won World Series rings with the 1964 Cardinals and the 1969 Miracle Mets, then took a medical degree and served more than three decades as the Toronto Blue Jays' team physician.
Radatz's rookie card is 1962 Topps #591, a Rookie Parade pitchers panel in the short-printed seventh series, so it is a high number as well as the card collectors chase for him. He shares the front with Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Art Quirk and Ron Nischwitz. Radatz got there by way of Triple-A Seattle in 1961, where manager Johnny Pesky moved a sore-armed starter into the bullpen against his wishes and got 54 relief outings and a 2.28 ERA out of him. He made the 1962 Red Sox out of spring training as a non-roster invitee at the $7,500 minimum, then struck out 13 of the first 27 big-league batters he faced. Dick Radatz, Boston's 6-foot-6 flamethrower nicknamed "The Monster," was the American League's most dominant reliever of the early 1960s, a two-time All-Star and Fireman of the Year whose 181 strikeouts in 1964 remain a major-league record for relievers.
Card 591 is a short-printed high number out of the seventh series, and it is a Rookie Parade card: five pitching prospects on one front, Quirk with Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz and Ron Nischwitz. It is his recognized rookie card, and it caught the one spring he broke camp with a big league club. The Sporting News tabbed him Baltimore's best young pitcher that April; he won at Washington on April 21, then outpitched Bo Belinsky on May 17, striking out eight over 7 1/3 innings against an Angels rookie who was 5-0 and twelve days off a no-hitter. Three days later two runs in two innings pushed his ERA to 5.93, the Orioles signed Robin Roberts, and Quirk went back to Rochester at 2-2 in seven games. Dartmouth-educated lefty who pitched seven games for the 1962 Orioles and seven for the 1963 Washington Senators, then spent 35 years building a Connecticut nonprofit serving people with developmental disabilities.
Card #591 belongs to the 1962 Topps Rookie Parade subset, a seventh-series short print from the set's scarce high-number run, and it is Nischwitz's recognized rookie card. He shares the card with Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz and Art Quirk. The 1962 season made that billing look earned: Nischwitz became the Tigers' most-used reliever, appearing in 48 games and working 64 2/3 innings, going 4-5 with a 3.90 ERA while striking out 28. He also swung a useful bat, collecting five hits in 12 at-bats, one of them a triple, for a .417 average. A switch-hitting left-handed reliever out of Dayton, Ohio and Ohio State, Ron Nischwitz pitched for the Tigers and Indians in 1961-1963 and again in 1965, then coached Wright State University baseball for three decades.
Sources: Wikipedia (Sam McDowell) · Wikipedia (Ron Taylor) · Wikipedia (Dick Radatz) · Wikipedia (Art Quirk) · SABR BioProject (Sam Mcdowell) · SABR BioProject (Ron Taylor) · SABR BioProject (Dick Radatz) · SABR BioProject (Art Quirk)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 720 | 0 | 8 | 125 | 213 | 165 | 108 | 99 | 2 |
| SGC | 132 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 24 | 34 | 30 | 27 | 5 |
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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #591 card?
It is card #591 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz, Art Quirk and Ron Nischwitz. Cards #591-598 are the eight-card Rookie Parade that closes the set - three cards of pitchers, one of catchers, three of infielders and one of outfielders - printed in the scarce seventh series and short-printed on every number. Bob Uecker (#594), Sam McDowell and Dick Radatz (#591), Jim Bouton (#592), Bob Veale (#593) and Joe Pepitone, Phil Linz and Rich Rollins (#596) are among the names.
Is 1962 Topps #591 a rookie card?
Yes - #591 is a rookie card for every player pictured on it: Sam McDowell, Ron Taylor, Dick Radatz, Art Quirk and Ron Nischwitz.
Why is #591 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. It is also a short print card (42 cards, all in 523-598). Printed in smaller quantity than the rest of the seventh series.
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.