1964 Topps #381 Bob Taylor
About Bob Taylor
1964 Topps #381 moves Taylor over to the New York Mets, and 1964 turned into the busiest year of his career. He got into the first major-league game at Shea Stadium on April 17, batting for Ed Bauta in the ninth and striking out against Bob Friend, then worked 45 games behind the plate and 16 more in left field across 92 appearances. Casey Stengel's platooning kept him a part-timer - "I would go 4-for-5 with a home run and not play for two weeks," he recalled - yet he still set career bests with 54 hits and 23 runs batted in. Card #381 comes from Topps' fifth series, a notch tougher than the common runs.
Robert Dale "Hawk" Taylor (1939-2012), born in Metropolis, Illinois, was a schoolboy sensation who batted .650 as a senior and signed with the Milwaukee Braves hours after his 1957 high-school graduation for a reported $119,000, the richest bonus any prospect had been given to that point. Bonus rules forced the 18-year-old straight onto the Braves' major-league roster, where he rode the bench through most of the 1957 championship season, used mainly as a pinch runner. Once the rule eased in 1958 he spent several years developing in the minors, earning a Triple-A All-Star selection as a catcher in 1960. Injury and Army service limited him to 56 games for Milwaukee across 1961-63, and the Braves sold him to the New York Mets in December 1963. New York gave him the fullest opportunity of his career in 1964, and in 1966 he hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in Mets history. He finished with the California Angels and the expansion Kansas City Royals before a back injury ended his playing days in 1971, then earned two degrees at Murray State and taught and coached baseball in Tennessee and western Kentucky. The nickname came from a boyhood favorite movie serial, "Hawk of the Wilderness."
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 190 | 4 | 33 | 94 | 35 | 17 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1964 Topps #381 card?
It is card #381 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Taylor of the New York Mets.
Why is #381 harder to find?
It is a series 5-6 card. Cards from the fifth and sixth print series (#371-522) are a step tougher to find than #1-370; availability in 1964 runs in three tiers, not a cliff.
How many cards are in the 1964 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 589 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 587 with no gaps, and no number carries two different cards; two cards - #4, the A.L. Pitching Leaders, and #517, the seventh-series checklist - carry a catalogued back variation that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.