1963 Topps #197 Roger Craig
About Roger Craig
This was the season that made Craig baseball's hard-luck emblem. Beginning May 4 he dropped 18 decisions in a row, and partway through the skid he swapped his familiar number 38 for an unlucky 13 to change his fortune. It broke on August 9 at the Polo Grounds, where he went the distance against the Cubs and won 7-3 after Jim Hickman's walk-off grand slam, lifting him to 3-20. He ended at 5-22 with a 3.78 ERA and 14 complete games in 31 starts, a second straight year atop the National League loss column. Number 197 falls in the third print series.
Roger Lee Craig was a right-handed pitcher born February 17, 1930, in Durham, North Carolina. He left North Carolina State after a year on a basketball scholarship, signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, lost 1952 and 1953 to Army service during the Korean War, and reached the majors on July 17, 1955 with a complete-game win at Ebbets Field. He won Game 5 of that year's World Series as Brooklyn claimed its only title, and pitched for the 1959 champion Los Angeles Dodgers after the move west. Taken by the expansion New York Mets in the October 1961 draft, he became the enduring face of their early struggles, absorbing two 20-loss seasons while still working as a complete-game workhorse. He relieved brilliantly for the 1964 world champion Cardinals, then closed out with Cincinnati and Philadelphia, finishing 74-98 with a 3.83 ERA over twelve seasons. Known afterward as the teacher of the split-finger fastball to Jack Morris and Mike Scott, he coached the 1984 champion Tigers and managed the Giants to the 1989 National League pennant. The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame inducted him in 1985. He died June 4, 2023, in San Diego.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 291 | 0 | 19 | 138 | 90 | 30 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 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
More New York Mets cards:
- #27 Choo Choo Coleman
- #43 Veteran Masters
- #59 Craig Anderson
- #68 Friendly Foes
- #78 Marv Throneberry
- #93 Galen Cisco
- #107 Jim Hickman
- #111 Al Jackson
- #135 Richie Ashburn
- #174 Larry Burright
- #217 Joe Christopher
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #233 Casey Stengel
- #245 Gil Hodges
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #197 card?
It is card #197 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roger Craig 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.