1962 Topps #179 Tom Sturdivant
About Tom Sturdivant
A full year in Pittsburgh opened well: seven innings, seven strikeouts and a 4-3 win over the brand-new Mets on April 13. Ten days later those same Mets beat him 9-1 for the first win in their history, making him the first pitcher ever to lose to them. Five earned runs in one inning across his next two starts sent him to the bullpen, and he did not get the rotation back until August 18, when he won four straight starts, including a three-hit shutout of Houston on August 22. He finished 9-5 with a 3.73 ERA. Card #179 sits in the second series, which Topps had to reprint when demand outran the order; the replacement plates came back light on magenta, so collectors chase both a plain #179 and a green tint copy.
Tom Sturdivant was a right-handed pitcher who reached the New York Yankees in 1955, seven years after they signed him as an infielder. He played third base in Class B ball from 1948 through 1950, batting .255 and then .246, and spent 1951 and most of 1952 in the Army, where he decided pitching was his only way up. A curveball that was hard to face got him the nickname Snake, and he backed it with a knuckleball and a moving fastball. In 1956 he went 16-8, led the American League in strikeout-to-walk ratio, and beat Brooklyn with a complete game in Game 4 of the World Series; in 1957 he went 16-6 and tied for the league lead in winning percentage at .727. Arm trouble and a heel a teammate spiked ruined his 1958, though he was ruled eligible for the World Series at the last minute and took a ring without pitching in it. Traded to Kansas City in May 1959, he spent the rest of his career with the Athletics, Red Sox, Senators, Pirates, Tigers and Mets, leaning harder on a knuckleball the Associated Press called his best pitch by 1963. He finished 59-51, went into freight and truck leasing in Oklahoma City, and was elected to the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #179 are tracked individually: 179a - No Green Tint and 179b - Green Tint. The difference is on the front of the card (green tint).
States catalogued by the PSA master set registry; each is tracked here individually.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 179a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 199 | 0 | 5 | 65 | 88 | 25 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 179b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 56 | 0 | 4 | 24 | 20 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation. 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
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #179 card?
It is card #179 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tom Sturdivant of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Does 1962 Topps #179 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 179a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 179b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #179 slot; the master set counts each state.
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.