1963 Topps #59 Craig Anderson
About Craig Anderson
This one is a first-series card - Anderson already had that in the 1962 set. It shows him with the Mets, but it reached shops while he was back in the minors: optioned to Triple-A Buffalo on April 1, he did not pitch for New York again until late in the year. The whole big-league season came to three appearances, two starts, nine and a third innings, an 8.68 ERA and two more losses. One was history. On September 18 he took the loss in the last major-league game ever played at the Polo Grounds, 5-1 to Chris Short and the Phillies, running his losing streak to 18.
Norman Craig Anderson, a right-handed pitcher born July 1, 1938, in Washington, D.C., came out of Anacostia High School and Lehigh University, where his 1.89 career earned run average is still the best in school history. The Cardinals signed him as an amateur free agent before the 1960 season, and he reached St. Louis on June 23, 1961, throwing three and two-thirds scoreless innings of relief and doubling in his first major-league at-bat to beat the San Francisco Giants. He went 4-3 with a 3.26 ERA that first year, and that October the Mets took him in the expansion draft. Four seasons with the Cardinals and Mets left him 7-23 with a 5.10 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 82 games, and his last 19 decisions were all defeats, a major-league record at the time. He went back to Lehigh in 1966 to work in the development office, stayed 34 years as an administrator and pitching coach, and was inducted into the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 299 | 0 | 31 | 133 | 83 | 36 | 10 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 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: #473 New York Mets
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- #43 Veteran Masters
- #68 Friendly Foes
- #78 Marv Throneberry
- #93 Galen Cisco
- #107 Jim Hickman
- #111 Al Jackson
- #135 Richie Ashburn
- #174 Larry Burright
- #197 Roger Craig
- #217 Joe Christopher
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #233 Casey Stengel
- #245 Gil Hodges
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #59 card?
It is card #59 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Craig Anderson of the New York Mets.
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.