1962 Topps #326 Tom Parsons
About Tom Parsons
Card 326 shows Parsons in a Pirates cap more than a year before he threw a major league pitch, and collectors count it as a rookie card. It sits in the set's fourth series. He spent that summer at Triple-A Columbus, the Pirates' International League club, going 9-10 with a 4.31 ERA over 26 starts and 163 innings, striking out 104. His call to the majors did not come until September 1963, and it lasted exactly one start.
Thomas Anthony Parsons was a right-handed pitcher born September 13, 1939, in Lakeville, Connecticut, out of Housatonic Valley Regional High School, and he stood 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds. Pittsburgh signed him in 1957, and he spent seven full seasons in the Pirates farm system, reaching Triple-A at Salt Lake City by 1960, before he got one appearance in a Pirates uniform: he started an 8-0 loss to the Milwaukee Braves on September 5, 1963. The next year was chaos. Pittsburgh traded him to the Houston Colt .45s in June 1964, he worked 19 games for Houston's Triple-A club at Oklahoma City, the deal was then cancelled, and the Pirates took him back and sold his contract to the Mets. He pitched four September games in New York, then stayed on the staff through 1965. His major league line was 2-13 with a 4.72 ERA, 70 strikeouts and 25 walks in 114 1/3 innings over 40 games. After the 1965 season the Mets traded him to Houston for catcher Jerry Grote, a two-time All-Star and the 1969 champions' catcher. Parsons never pitched in the majors again, working four more minor league seasons and finishing 95-98 down there before retiring in 1969.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 178 | 0 | 5 | 60 | 75 | 22 | 7 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 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 #326 card?
It is card #326 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tom Parsons of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Is 1962 Topps #326 a rookie card?
Yes - #326 is the 1962 Topps rookie card of Tom Parsons.
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.