1972 Topps #42 Tommy Davis In Action
About this card
This is one of the 72 In Action cards, each numbered right after the same man's card, in six blocks of twelve even numbers, one per series: #32-54, #164-186, #292-314, #426-448, #552-574 and #692-714 (#34 Billy Martin follows his #33 manager card). The backs of the 24 In Action cards in the fifth and sixth series piece together into pictures of Joe Torre and Carl Yastrzemski (fifth series) and Tony Oliva and Tom Seaver (sixth).
About Tommy Davis In Action
Oakland released Tommy Davis at the end of 1972 spring training, so first-series #41 and its In Action partner #42 show him with a club that had already let him go. He signed with the Cubs in July and played only a month before Chicago traded him to the Orioles. Across both stops he batted .259 with 12 RBI in 41 games, 20 of them in the outfield and 6 at first base.
Herman Thomas Davis Jr. was born March 21, 1939, in Brooklyn and signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers for a $4,000 bonus after a personal phone call from Jackie Robinson steered him away from the Yankees. He won minor-league batting titles at Kokomo in 1957 and Spokane in 1959, then struck out as a pinch hitter in his only September 1959 at-bat. He became the first Los Angeles Dodger to win a batting championship, taking the National League crown in 1962 at .346 with 230 hits and 153 RBI, a franchise record that broke Roy Campanella's 142. He repeated in 1963 at .326, the only back-to-back batting titles in the club's Los Angeles history. A broken and dislocated ankle on May 1, 1965, ended that season, and he kept hitting for ten organizations across eighteen seasons, among them the one-year Seattle Pilots. In Baltimore he served as designated hitter from 1973 to 1975 and won the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award in 1974, when he collected 181 hits. He finished with 2,121 hits and a .294 average in 1,999 games, then worked as a Dodgers minor-league instructor and as the Seattle Mariners' hitting coach in 1981. He died April 3, 2022, in Phoenix at 83.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 314 | 5 | 77 | 174 | 36 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 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 Tommy Davis in this set: #41 Tommy Davis
Team card: #454 Oakland A's
More Oakland Athletics cards:
- #17 Dave Duncan
- #41 Tommy Davis
- #62 Angel Mangual
- #75 Bert Campaneris
- #90 1971 A.L. Home Run Leaders
- #92 1971 A.L. E.R.A. Leaders
- #94 1971 A.L. Pitching Leaders
- #96 1971 A.L. Strikeout Leaders
- #111 Jim Grant
- #137 Dick Williams
- #169 Vida Blue
- #170 Vida Blue In Action
- #189 Gene Tenace
- #209 Joe Rudi
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1972 Topps #42 card?
It is card #42 of the 787-card 1972 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tommy Davis of the Oakland Athletics. This is one of the 72 In Action cards, each numbered right after the same man's card, in six blocks of twelve even numbers, one per series: #32-54, #164-186, #292-314, #426-448, #552-574 and #692-714 (#34 Billy Martin follows his #33 manager card). The backs of the 24 In Action cards in the fifth and sixth series piece together into pictures of Joe Torre and Carl Yastrzemski (fifth series) and Tony Oliva and Tom Seaver (sixth).
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.