1962 Topps #157 Wes Covington
About Wes Covington
Card #157 lands after a 1961 spent in four uniforms: Milwaukee waived him in May, the White Sox bought him for the waiver price, Kansas City took him in an eight-player swap in June, and Philadelphia got him weeks later, where he batted .303 in 57 games. The series-2 card comes in two collectible states, 157a with normal color and 157b carrying the green tint that runs through part of that second-series printing.
John Wesley Covington entered pro ball in 1952 with the Class C Eau Claire Bears, then a Boston Braves farm club, rooming with Hank Aaron at the local YMCA; Aaron later wrote that onlookers then would have picked Covington as the future star. He debuted with Milwaukee on April 19, 1956, and became the Braves' left-handed power bat behind Aaron and Eddie Mathews, hitting .284 with 21 home runs in 1957 as Milwaukee beat the Yankees for the title, then .330 with 24 in 1958 before the Yankees won the rematch. A torn ankle ligament in August 1959 cost him his footing, and by 1961 he was out of Milwaukee, reaching Philadelphia after a midseason tour of two American League clubs. He spent five seasons as a Phillies platoon left fielder and pinch-hitter, clashing with manager Gene Mauch, and played his last big-league game in October 1966, finishing with a .279 average and 131 home runs over eleven seasons. He later ran businesses in Philadelphia and in Edmonton, Alberta, where he died in 2011.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Print variations
Two states of #157 are tracked individually: 157a - No Green Tint and 157b - 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 157a - No Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 247 | 0 | 5 | 87 | 106 | 33 | 11 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 157b - Green Tint | |||||||||
| PSA | 60 | 0 | 3 | 23 | 21 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #157 card?
It is card #157 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Wes Covington of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Does 1962 Topps #157 have variations?
Yes. Two states are catalogued and tracked separately: 157a - No Green Tint (No green tint - the standard first printing) and 157b - Green Tint (Green tint - the color-shifted second printing of series 2). Owning any one of them fills the #157 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.