1974 Topps #520 Tim McCarver
About Tim McCarver
McCarver had 88 hits and scored 30 runs for St. Louis in 1973. The Cardinals affiliation carried into his 1974 Topps card, #520. Boston purchased his contract late that season to add a bat to its bench during the pennant race with Baltimore. Between the Cardinals and Red Sox, he batted .224 in 85 games in 1974.
James Timothy McCarver signed with the St. Louis Cardinals out of Memphis in 1959 for a $75,000 bonus, turning down a football scholarship, and debuted that September at 17. A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, he shuttled between St. Louis and the minors for four seasons before taking the catching job for good in 1963. From there he was the everyday catcher on a Cardinals club that won three National League pennants in five seasons: Bob Gibson's preferred battery mate, a World Series winner in 1964 and 1967, and a seven-game loser to Detroit in 1968. He made All-Star teams in 1966 and 1967 and finished runner-up to teammate Orlando Cepeda for the 1967 National League MVP award. Traded to Philadelphia after the 1969 season, he later played for Montreal, St. Louis again and Boston before returning to the Phillies as Steve Carlton's personal catcher, a job that stretched his career into a fourth decade in 1980. He retired with a .271 average, 97 home runs and 645 RBI over 21 seasons, then built a second career in the broadcast booth that outlasted his playing days, calling a then-record 23 World Series and winning the Ford C. Frick Award in 2012. The Cardinals inducted him into their team Hall of Fame in 2017; he died in 2023.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 243 | 7 | 101 | 102 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 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
Team card: #36 St. Louis Cardinals
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
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- #108 Al Hrabosky
- #151 Diego Segui
- #175 Reggie Cleveland
- #204 1973 Stolen Base Leaders
- #209 Ted Sizemore
- #236 Cardinals Field Leaders
- #260 Ted Simmons
- #285 Reggie Smith
- #307 Luis Melendez
- #339 All-Star Pitchers
- #350 Bob Gibson
- #372 Ken Reitz
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1974 Topps #520 card?
It is card #520 of the 660-card 1974 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tim McCarver of the St. Louis Cardinals.
How many cards are in the 1974 Topps Baseball set?
660 cards, tracked as 678 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 660 with none skipped, issued all at once as a single series and printed in equal quantities; 17 cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - fourteen San Diego / "Washington Nat'l Lea." pairs (thirteen Padres player cards and the #226 team card), the three-state #599 Rookie Pitchers, the #608 Apodaco misspelling and the #654 Jesus Alou front without a position.
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.