1963 Topps #540 Bob Clemente
About Bob Clemente
The 1962 season behind these cards brought a .312 average, 10 home runs and 74 runs batted in, a second straight Gold Glove, and All-Star starts in both of that summer's games, including a three-hit afternoon in Washington. Card #18 is a Pirates combination card he shares with Smoky Burgess, Dick Stuart and Bob Skinner. Card #540 sits in the seventh series as a high number, the hardest Clemente card of the nine-year run to track down.
Roberto Clemente played all eighteen of his major league seasons in right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates, reaching them in the November 1954 Rule 5 draft after the Dodgers left their bonus signing unprotected at Triple-A Montreal. Born August 18, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he debuted at twenty and grew into the era's most complete outfielder: four National League batting titles in 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1967, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1961 through 1972 behind a famous throwing arm, and the 1966 Most Valuable Player Award, for which the writers named him on all twenty ballots. He was chosen for fifteen All-Star Games and retired at .317 with 240 home runs and 1,305 runs batted in. Pittsburgh won the 1960 World Series with him, and at thirty-seven he carried the 1971 club past Baltimore, hitting .414 and taking Series MVP honors. His 3,000th hit, a double off Jon Matlack on September 30, 1972, closed his last regular season and made him the eleventh man to reach that mark. On December 31, 1972 a cargo plane he had chartered to fly earthquake relief to Nicaragua went down off the Puerto Rican coast, and his body was never recovered. A special election in 1973 waived the five-year wait and made him the first Latino player enshrined at Cooperstown.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 3,277 | 2 | 35 | 399 | 695 | 727 | 526 | 863 | 30 |
| SGC | 1,484 | 0 | 4 | 41 | 173 | 261 | 339 | 571 | 95 |
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
More Bob Clemente in this set: #18 Combo
Team card: #151 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #18 Buc Blasters
- #34 Dick Schofield
- #55 Bill Virdon
- #87 Bob Veale
- #101 Joe Gibbon
- #122 Julio Gotay
- #159 Jim Pagliaroni
- #169 1963 Rookie Stars
- #184 Vern Law
- #215 Bob Skinner
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #239 Harvey Haddix
- #259 Johnny Logan
- #281 Tom Sturdivant
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #540 card?
It is card #540 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
What are the key cards in the 1963 Topps set?
The #537 Rookie Stars card, Pete Rose's rookie card, leads the set. Beside it at the top sit #200 Mickey Mantle and #540 Bob Clemente, then #300 Willie Mays, #390 Hank Aaron, #210 Sandy Koufax, #340 Yogi Berra, #472 Lou Brock, #500 Harmon Killebrew (one of the four short prints) and the Rookie Stars cards with Willie Stargell (#553) and Tony Oliva (#228). The scarce sixth and seventh series (#447-576) hold the short prints and the hardest cards to find.
Why is #540 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #512-576 - the last and scarcest run in the set. Price guides often band the highs as #523-576, but the printing break falls between #511 and #512.
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.