1962 Topps #274 Sammy Taylor
About Sammy Taylor
Taylor's 1962 split in two. He opened with the Cubs, hitting .133 in 15 at-bats over seven games, and on April 26 Chicago traded him to the first-year New York Mets for outfielder Bobby Gene Smith. He appeared in 68 games for that inaugural Mets club, batting .222 with three home runs and 20 RBI, and finished the season at .214 in 173 at-bats. Number 274 is a third-series card in the 1962 Topps set, and it still pictures him with the Chicago Cubs even though he played most of the year in New York.
Samuel Douglas Taylor was a left-handed-hitting catcher who spent six major league seasons, from 1958 to 1963, with the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. Born in Woodruff, South Carolina, he stood 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, came out of Woodruff High School to play one season of Class D ball in 1950, then served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean Conflict. Signed by the Milwaukee Braves as a free agent in 1956, he spent two full years in that farm system before a December 5, 1957 trade sent him to the Cubs, and he reached the majors in April 1958, drawing a walk as a pinch hitter in his first plate appearance. His best year came in 1959, when he hit .269 with 13 home runs and 43 RBI in 110 games. He lost the starting job during a .207 season in 1960, moved to the expansion Mets in 1962, and closed things out in 1963 with brief stops in Cincinnati and Cleveland. Over 473 games he hit .245 with 309 hits, 33 home runs and 147 RBI. He died in Woodruff in 2019 at age 86.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 268 | 1 | 5 | 157 | 79 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #274 card?
It is card #274 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sammy Taylor of the Chicago Cubs.
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.