1972 Topps #493 Bob Bailey
About this card
This is one of the sixteen Boyhood Photos cards, in two runs of eight (#341-348 and #491-498); every Boyhood Photos player also has a regular card in the set.
About Bob Bailey
Topps gave Bailey two Expos cards in 1972: #493 in the fourth-series Boyhood Photos of the Stars subset and #526 in the fifth series. His 1972 dipped from the year before, to .233 with 16 home runs and 57 RBI for Montreal. He played 134 of his 143 games at third base and five in the outfield.
Robert Sherwood Bailey signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates at one minute past midnight on June 16, 1961, hours after graduating from Long Beach's Woodrow Wilson High School, collecting a bonus reported at $175,000. He debuted at 19 in September 1962 and played 17 major league seasons through 1978 with Pittsburgh, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Montreal Expos, the Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox, finishing at .257 with 189 home runs and 773 RBI. He spent four years at third base in cavernous Forbes Field and two with the Dodgers before reaching Montreal, where a Victoria Day grand slam in May 1970 touched off a 28-homer, 84-RBI season. He stayed with the Expos through 1975, adding 26 homers and 86 RBI in 1973. Cincinnati acquired him for Clay Kirby in December 1975, and he was on the Reds club that swept the Yankees in the 1976 World Series. He died in 2018 at 75.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 164 | 9 | 60 | 76 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. 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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Related cards
More Bob Bailey in this set: #526
Team card: #582 Montreal Expos
More Montreal Expos cards:
- #5 John Bateman
- #58 Ernie McAnally
- #82 Ron Woods
- #95 1971 N.L. Strikeout Leaders
- #110 Ron Hunt
- #134 Carl Morton
- #159 John Boccabella
- #211 Gary Sutherland
- #234 Ron Taylor
- #254 Boots Day
- #276 Gene Mauch
- #307 Steve Renko
- #308 Steve Renko In Action
- #331 Stan Swanson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #493 card?
It is card #493 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Bailey of the Montreal Expos. This is one of the sixteen Boyhood Photos cards, in two runs of eight (#341-348 and #491-498); every Boyhood Photos player also has a regular card in the set.
How many cards are in the 1972 Topps Baseball set?
787 cards, tracked as 794 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 787 with none skipped, in six print series (#1-132, #133-263, #264-394, #395-525, #526-656 and #657-787, the high numbers); 7 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - four Chicago Cubs cards with yellow or green under the "C" and "S" of the team name, the #251 and #478 checklists with smaller or larger print on the front, and the #604 checklist with its copyright line aligned right or left.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, 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 2026-10-25.