1963 Topps #557 Cuno Barragan
About Cuno Barragan
Card #557 belongs to Topps' seventh and final 1963 series, a high number. It reached packs late in a season he spent almost entirely in the minors. Bob Kennedy replaced the College of Coaches, Dick Bertell was the settled starter, and newcomers Merritt Ranew and Jimmie Schaffer filled out the catching, leaving Barragan a single game all year: a strikeout in his only at-bat on April 21, his last in the majors. Chicago optioned him to the Pacific Coast League's Salt Lake City Bees, where he hit .284 in 85 games. That October he caught the whole game in a Latin American all-star exhibition at the Polo Grounds, the last baseball game ever played there.
Facundo "Cuno" Barragan was a catcher from Sacramento, California, born June 20, 1932, the youngest of seven children of Mexican immigrant parents. His father died when Cuno was two and his mother when he was fifteen, so older siblings largely raised him. He took up catching as a boy only because nobody else on the neighborhood team he had organized would take the job, and the position stuck for the rest of his playing days. After Sacramento Junior College and a two-year Navy hitch, he spent the rest of the 1950s in the Sacramento Solons' orbit - Idaho Falls, Amarillo, and dollar sales to Portland and Spokane - until a .318 year for the Solons in 1960 got him drafted by the Chicago Cubs. A broken ankle in his first Cubs spring training pushed his debut to September 1, 1961, when he homered in his first big-league at-bat, the third Cub ever to do it. He caught parts of three seasons in Chicago, 1961-1963, batting .202 with 33 hits and 14 RBIs in 69 games; that debut homer was his only one. He sold insurance around Sacramento until 2011, entered the Mexican American Hall of Fame in 1973 and the Sacramento City College Hall of Fame in 2002, and died in 2024 at 91.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 283 | 0 | 11 | 137 | 95 | 26 | 9 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 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: #222 Chicago Cubs
More Chicago Cubs cards:
- #3 1962 National League Home Run Leaders
- #15 Ken Hubbs
- #31 Cal Koonce
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #58 Bob Will
- #81 Jimmie Schaffer
- #95 Larry Jackson
- #113 Don Landrum
- #175 Bob Buhl
- #193 Andre Rodgers
- #212 Glen Hobbie
- #242 Power Plus
- #252 Ron Santo
- #272 Danny Murphy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #557 card?
It is card #557 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Cuno Barragan of the Chicago Cubs.
Why is #557 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.