1963 Topps #324 1963 Rookie Stars
On this card: George Williams, Pete Ward, Vic Davalillo, Phil Roof
About this card
The twenty Rookie Stars cards, four players each and all titled "1963 Rookie Stars", carry the rookie class - Pete Rose on #537, Willie Stargell on #553, Tony Oliva and Ed Kranepool on #228, Rusty Staub on #544, Bill Freehan on #466 and Dave McNally on #562. Three of them (#169, #208, #544) are rookie cards for only some of the men pictured.
The story on this card
This 1963 Topps card (#324) is a Rookie Stars four-player subset from Topps' fourth series, a regular-issue number, pairing Williams with Pete Ward, Vic Davalillo, and Phil Roof, each shown with a different club, Williams under the Houston Colt .45's. It is his recognized rookie card. The card follows his 1962 season, his first with Houston after leaving the Phillies organization, a year in which he served as a backup infielder for the young expansion club. Detroit-born second baseman who reached the majors with the 1961 Phillies, then moved through the Colt .45's and Athletics; his real production came across eleven minor league seasons.
Ward's rookie card is the four-player 1963 Topps Rookie Stars issue, #324 in the set's fourth series, where his White Sox listing sits alongside George Williams, Vic Davalillo and Phil Roof. The January trade that sent Luis Aparicio to Baltimore had already carried Ward the other way, and Al Lopez handed him third base on the South Side. He answered with 177 hits, second in the American League behind Carl Yastrzemski, and 34 doubles, also second in the league, while driving in 84 runs and helping Chicago win 94 games. Teammate Gary Peters edged him 10 votes to 6 for the writers' Rookie of the Year award, and Ward finished ninth in the MVP balloting. Canadian-born third baseman who won The Sporting News American League Rookie of the Year in 1963, hitting .295 with 22 home runs for the Chicago White Sox before a 1965 car accident and a neck injury ended his run as a star.
Card #324 is a fourth-series Rookie Stars panel crowding four organizations onto one front: George Williams of Houston, Pete Ward of the White Sox, Davalillo of Cleveland and Phil Roof of the Braves. It is the only card collectors count as his rookie. He was drawing Rookie of the Year talk by mid-June 1963 when a Hank Aguirre pitch broke his arm on June 12 and cost him nearly two months; he still led the Indians at .292. Vic Davalillo was Cleveland's speedy Venezuelan center fielder, a 1964 Gold Glove winner and 1965 All-Star starter who later became one of baseball's best pinch hitters and dragged the bunt that lifted the 1977 Dodgers past Philadelphia.
Roof did not see a big-league inning in 1963. He spent the year in the Milwaukee Braves chain with the Triple-A Denver Bears of the Pacific Coast League, a 71-87 club managed by Jack Tighe whose roster also held Bob Uecker, Tommie Aaron and Roof's Paducah cousin Eddie Haas. He shares the front with George Williams, Pete Ward and Vic Davalillo, a four-team panel on which Roof is the Milwaukee Brave. Fifteen big-league seasons and eight uniforms on the strength of catching, not hitting: a .215 lifetime batter who threw runners out, then spent nearly three decades coaching in big-league bullpens and managing in the minors.
Sources: Wikipedia (George Williams (infielder)) · Wikipedia (Pete Ward) · Wikipedia (Vic Davalillo) · Wikipedia (Phil Roof) · SABR BioProject · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 249 | 0 | 9 | 64 | 93 | 46 | 17 | 16 | 4 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 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.
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Related cards
Team cards: #312 Houston Colt .45's, #288 Chicago White Sox, #451 Cleveland Indians, #503 Milwaukee Braves
More Houston Colt .45's cards:
- #9 1962 National League Strikeout Leaders
- #24 Bob Bruce
- #45 Bob Aspromonte
- #77 Al Spangler
- #99 Jim Umbricht
- #119 Bob Lillis
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #6 1962 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #16 Al Smith
- #35 John Buzhardt
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #14 Pedro Ramos
- #36 Jerry Kindall
- #48 Birdie Tebbetts
- #72 Johnny Romano
- #103 Chuck Essegian
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #1 1962 National League Batting Leaders
- #3 1962 National League Home Run Leaders
- #5 1962 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #46 Tommie Aaron
- #62 Bob Hendley
- #73 Bobby Bragan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #324 card?
It is card #324 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing George Williams, Pete Ward, Vic Davalillo and Phil Roof. The twenty Rookie Stars cards, four players each and all titled "1963 Rookie Stars", carry the rookie class - Pete Rose on #537, Willie Stargell on #553, Tony Oliva and Ed Kranepool on #228, Rusty Staub on #544, Bill Freehan on #466 and Dave McNally on #562. Three of them (#169, #208, #544) are rookie cards for only some of the men pictured.
Is 1963 Topps #324 a rookie card?
Yes - #324 is a rookie card for every player pictured on it: George Williams, Pete Ward, Vic Davalillo and Phil Roof.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.