1963 Topps #512 Cal McLish
About Cal McLish
Card 512 sits in the seventh series, the high numbers that close out the set, and it is a high number among his four Topps cards of the decade - the hardest of them to track down. At 37 he was Philadelphia's workhorse in 1963, making 32 starts and throwing 209 2/3 innings, more than anyone else on the staff, and his 3.26 ERA was his best since the Cleveland years, though the record behind it read 13-11. He reeled off a five-game winning streak and later a four-game run. Then soreness at the top of his right shoulder shut him down roughly two weeks before the season ended.
Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, on December 1, 1925, the seventh of eight children, named by a father who had not been allowed to name the first six. Signed out of Oklahoma City's Central High School by Brooklyn scout Tom Greenwade, he reached the Dodgers in May 1944 at 18 with almost no pitching experience, then reported for Army duty that August and served in Europe with the 3rd Infantry Division, missing all of 1945. Most of the early 1950s went by in the Pacific Coast League until a Cleveland farm club bought him in 1955. He finally held a big-league rotation spot at 32, going 16-8 in 1958 and 19-8 in 1959, clearing 200 innings both years and saving the second of that summer's two All-Star Games for the American League. Cincinnati, the White Sox and the Phillies followed in three straight winters, and he retired in 1964 at 92-92 with 713 strikeouts. He coached big-league pitchers from 1965 to 1982, for Gene Mauch in Philadelphia and Montreal and then in Milwaukee, where Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuckovich won Cy Young Awards. The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 2009.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 270 | 0 | 15 | 113 | 99 | 30 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #13 Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #29 1963 Rookie Stars
- #32 Tony Gonzalez
- #56 Dennis Bennett
- #71 Bobby Wine
- #91 Dallas Green
- #132 Jack Hamilton
- #139 Earl Averill
- #161 Frank Torre
- #192 Clay Dalrymple
- #221 Cookie Rojas
- #241 Billy Smith
- #268 Don Demeter
- #283 Roy Sievers
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #512 card?
It is card #512 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Cal McLish of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Why is #512 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.