1964 Topps #251 Choo Choo Coleman
About Choo Choo Coleman
The 1963 season behind this card was Coleman's only real turn as a regular. He opened as the Mets' starting catcher, was moved into a platoon after a 1-for-20 start, and still played a career-high 106 games, 91 of them behind the plate, batting .178 with 3 home runs and 9 RBIs for a team that went 51-111 and finished last again. His arm still cut down runners, but 11 passed balls and 15 errors erased the defensive gains of the year before. By the time card #251 reached packs he was gone from the roster: a fractured thumb cost him a month of spring training and the Mets optioned him to Triple-A Buffalo.
Clarence Coleman, the catcher everyone called Choo-Choo, signed in 1955 with his hometown Orlando club, a Class D Washington Senators affiliate, spent part of 1956 barnstorming with the Indianapolis Clowns, then climbed the Los Angeles Dodgers chain from Class D Orlando to Class A Macon to Triple-A Montreal by 1960. A left-handed hitter who threw right and drew praise for his arm, he was taken by the Philadelphia Phillies with the first pick of the November 1960 Rule 5 draft and debuted on April 16, 1961, hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance. The expansion New York Mets took him in the October 1961 draft, and he caught in parts of three Mets seasons - 1962, 1963 and 1966 - becoming one of the best-loved figures of the franchise's early years. Over four big-league seasons he batted .197 with 9 home runs and 30 RBIs in 201 games. Afterward he cooked and helped run a Chinese restaurant owned by his wife's family in Newport News, Virginia, then retired to South Carolina, where he died in 2016.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 262 | 1 | 38 | 125 | 63 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 2 |
| SGC | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 #251 card?
It is card #251 of the 587-card 1964 Topps Baseball set, picturing Choo Choo Coleman of the New York Mets.
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.