1962 Topps #482 Sam Mele
About this card
The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
About Sam Mele
Mele's first full season in charge brought the Twins home 91-71, second in the ten-team American League and five games behind the pennant-winning Yankees - the franchise's first winning record in ten years, the last one earned in 1952 as the Washington Senators. Harmon Killebrew led the league with 48 home runs and 126 runs batted in, Bob Allison added 29 homers, and Camilo Pascual became the Twins' first 20-game winner. Mele's Topps card that year is #482, a manager subset entry out of the set's sixth series.
Sabath Anthony Mele, who picked up the nickname "Sam" from his initials, was born in 1922 in Astoria, in the New York City borough of Queens, the nephew of major leaguers Tony and Al Cuccinello. After starring at New York University in baseball and basketball and serving in the Marine Corps during World War II, he signed with the Boston Red Sox and made his major league debut in 1947, hitting .302 as a rookie right fielder. Over a ten-year playing career with the Red Sox, Washington Senators, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Redlegs and Cleveland Indians, he batted .267 with 80 home runs and led the American League in doubles in 1951. After his playing days ended, Mele coached for the Senators and followed the franchise to Minnesota, taking over as manager of the Twins in June 1961. He managed the club into 1967, compiling a 524-436 record and guiding Minnesota to its first American League pennant. He later scouted for the Red Sox for decades until retiring in 1994, and died in 2017 at 95.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 205 | 0 | 17 | 83 | 67 | 25 | 6 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 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: #584 Minnesota Twins Team
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #21 Jim Kaat
- #70 Harmon Killebrew
- #84 Lenny Green
- #102 Al Schroll
- #124 Bill Pleis
- #164 Hal Naragon
- #166 Don Lee
- #180 Bob Allison
- #208 Billy Martin
- #222 Jerry Zimmerman
- #230 Camilo Pascual
- #298 Bill Tuttle
- #316 Harmon Killebrew
- #321 Lee Stange
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #482 card?
It is card #482 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sam Mele of the Minnesota Twins. The set carries nineteen manager cards, including three Hall of Famers: Casey Stengel of the first-year Mets at #29, Walt Alston at #217 and Al Lopez at #286.
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.