15 Most Valuable 1961 Topps Baseball Cards

1961 Topps #300 Mickey Mantle

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $5,500

On the other side of Roger Maris in the legendary 1961 home run chase, Mickey Mantle was the chosen one, the heir apparent, the golden boy of the Bronx.

Mantle was a larger-than-life Yankees icon.

It would be respectful to the tradition of New York baseball if he weren't the one to hit #61.

As we know, it didn't go that way.

Mantle and Maris traded bombs for the 109-win Yankees all summer long.

It was supposed to be Mantle's race to lose.

There's no way that the quiet, distant Maris could hold a candle.

Even on September 10th, with Maris ahead of Mantle, 56 to 53, the prevailing thought was that Mantle would catch fire to push Maris aside and take the record.

And then, it all stopped.

Mantle developed severe muscle stiffness and a nasty cold.

He was sidelined for ten of the Yankees' final twelve games from September 19th on, hitting just one more home run to finish with 54.

Afraid he'd miss the World Series and a chance at redemption after the disappointment of the '60 Fall Classic, Mantle received what he termed a "vitamin shot."

It backfired fiercely, causing an infection that required immediate drainage, leaving him with a hole "the size of a golf ball" on his hip.

Still ailing and hobbled, Mantle played in just two games of the World Series, going 1-for-6 with two strikeouts.

The Yankees routed the Reds in five anyways, lifting the Commerce Comet to his sixth championship.

Mantle ended his remarkable regular season with MLB bests in slugging percentage (.687), walks (126), and OPS+ (206).

He hit .317 with a sterling .448 on-base percentage, adding 16 doubles, six triples, 128 RBIs, and 131 runs scored in 153 games.

1961 Topps #150 Willie Mays

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,750

The legend of the "Say Hey Kid" has only grown with time, and there's a reason for that.

Willie Mays was just that special, that singular.

Look no further than April 30th, 1961, for proof of that.

The night before, Mays caught a case of food poisoning after grabbing some room-service ribs with teammate Willie McCovey.

Weak and nursing an angry stomach, the venerable San Francisco Giants center fielder felt off during batting practice.

He still played, though.

And he put on a show for the ages.

Using a lighter bat provided by teammate Joey Amalfitano to compensate for his lagging muscles, Mays hit homers off of Milwaukee Braves starter Lew Burdette.

After a fifth-inning lineout, Mays slugged homers #3 and #4 off a pair of Braves relievers.

He might have hit five on the day if he hadn't been stranded on deck in the ninth.

Mays was on another planet.

Nothing could touch him, not even food poisoning.

Finishing sixth in the NL MVP race with two All-Star nods and a third consecutive Gold Glove, the 30-year-old megastar slashed .308/.393/.584 with an NL-best 129 runs scored, 40 home runs, 32 doubles, 18 stolen bases, and 121 RBIs for the third-place Giants.

In doing so, the 1954 NL Most Valuable Player extended his streak of top-six MVP finishes to five.

1961 Topps #415 Hank Aaron

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,750

There are perennial MVP candidates, and then there's Hank Aaron.

1961 was the seventh consecutive year in which the future Hall of Famer received votes for the award.

That streak would reach a remarkable nineteen years.

In 1960, Aaron's batting average dropped under .300 for the first time since his rookie year, just one year after winning his second batting title with a searing .355 mark.

He returned to his usual ways in '61, hitting .327 to finish fifth in the NL batting race.

That kicked off another streak of five years with an average of over .300.

The 83-win Braves finished fourth in a tightly-contested NL race made even more stressful by the Senior Circuit's maintenance of the old 154-game schedule.

Aaron kept the Braves within earshot of the pennant race, leading the NL in games played, doubles (39), and total bases (358).

He posted a beefy .974 OPS with 34 home runs, ten triples, 21 stolen bases, 115 runs scored, and 120 RBIs in 671 plate appearances (601 at-bats).

He also made history with a trio of his teammates (Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock, Frank Thomas), becoming the first quartet of teammates in baseball history to hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers in a single game.

1961 Topps #578 Mickey Mantle All-Star

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,400

To finish off the 1961 Topps set checklist, Topps included the 1961 Sporting News All-Star subset spanning cards #566 - 589.

Highlighting some of the top players in the AL and NL, the 1961 Sporting News All-Star subset design is arguably the most creative of all that appeared in Topps sets of that era.

Player headshots are featured prominently in the center, bursting through a newspaper with their names featured across the top in a headline fashion.

Beginning with card #566, which honored manager Paul Richard of the Baltimore Orioles, the checklist alternated between an AL All-Star and NL All-Star, with Warren Spahn wrapping things up at card #589.

Interestingly, cards #587 and #588 are omitted entirely, bringing the total count of the subset to 22 cards.

It isn't clear how Topps chose the players in the subset as some big names like Roberto Clemente, Eddie Mathews, and Stan Musial did not make the cut, though they were on the '61 All-Star Game rosters.

And players like Earl Battery, Bob Friend, and Del Crandall did make the subset but were not on the All-Star Game rosters.

As you might expect, Mickey Mantle's card #578 is the most desirable of the group.

1961 Topps #475 Mickey Mantle MVP

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,300

The MVPs subset, which begins with Phil Rizzuto at card #471 and ends with Dick Groat at card #486, is another incredibly popular subset that has stood the test of time.

Within the group, all of the American League and National League MVPs from 1950 to 1960 appear on either a red (AL) or blue (NL) background, with the years they were MVPs shown across the top.

Yogi Berra (card #472) shows him winning the AL MVP in 1951, 1954 and 1955, while Roy Campanella (card #480) shows him winning NL MVP honors in 1951, 1953 and 1955.

Ernie Banks (card #485) and Mickey Mantle (card #475) are the only other players in the subset with multiple MVP awards during that time frame.

In 1956, Mantle won the Triple Crown, batting .353 with 52 home runs and 130 RBI to easily capture his first MVP award.

Mantle would defend his MVP title in 1957 in a close race versus runner-up Ted Williams to make it two in a row.

From there, he'd have three top-five finishes in 1958, 1960 and 1961 before winning his third and final MVP in 1962.

1961 Topps #2 Roger Maris

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,200

The story of Roger Maris' 1961 season is akin to a Shakespearean tragedy.

Here was a humble, Midwestern kid chasing down the immortal ghost of Babe Ruth, a perpetual outsider, going blow for blow with living New York Yankees legend and teammate Mickey Mantle.

As Maris went on the heater of a lifetime in '61, following up his 1960 AL MVP season with a campaign of ultimate historical weight, a whole city (and most of a nation) turned on him.

How could he be the one to eclipse the great Ruth's unassailable single-season home run record?

Public opinion held Mantle on a pedestal over Maris as both launched a long-ball assault on the record books.

It didn't matter in the end.

Mantle fell to injury in late September, ending his hot pursuit of Ruth.

Now, it was Maris alone facing the world.

Even Commissioner Ford Frick was against him.

The long-time friend of Babe Ruth cast a shadow on Maris, stating plainly that the record would be no record if not achieved within the former confines of a 154-game schedule.

When he finally hit the record-breaking #61 on the season's final day at Yankee Stadium, a less-than-capacity crowd of 23,154 met him with a mixed reaction.

His nerves were shot.

En route to his second consecutive AL MVP award, Maris was not in a celebratory mood.

He was drained.

Maris ended his award-winning, record-altering campaign with a .269/.372/.620 slash line while leading the Majors in runs scored (132) and total bases (366), and pacing the American League in RBIs (141).

Come October, the back-to-back AL champion Yankees put the pain of the previous year's seven-game World Series loss behind them, outclassing the Cincinnati Reds in five games.

They did it, though, with Maris in a series-long slump.

He hit just .105 for the Series, albeit with a homer and two RBIs.

1961 Topps #388 Roberto Clemente

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $1,200

Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente wasn't satisfied with being an All-Star.

He wanted to be great, transcendent even, and wanted others to see it in him.

Clemente made his first Midsummer Classic appearance in 1960 in his sixth MLB season.

However, he finished just eighth in the league's MVP race.

That didn't sit well with the future Hall-of-Famer.

"After I failed to win the Most Valuable Player Award in 1960, I made up my mind I'd win the batting title in 1961 for the first time," Clemente said.

It was self-actualization at its finest.

After crossing the .300 threshold for the second time in '60, Clemente tightened his approach with an even finer eye for the details.

Making good use of every corner of the field, the 26-year-old piled on hit after hit.

When the dust settled, Clemente won the NL batting title with a .351 average, eight points clear of Cincinnati Reds center fielder Vada Pinson.

The shining gem of an otherwise drab season for the sixth-place Pirates, Clemente posted new career bests in on-base percentage (.390), slugging percentage (.559), home runs (23), and runs scored (100).

He also cracked 200 hits (201) for the first of four times in his eighteen-year career.

1961 Topps #344 Sandy Koufax

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $900

Sandy Koufax's rocket ride into the Hall of Fame stratosphere started with a bit of advice from Los Angeles Dodgers backup catcher Norm Sherry.

"He needs a loose wrist to get snap in the ball at the position of release, not more muscular tension than he was already creating." Sherry said, "Why not have some fun out there, Sandy?"

What was meant to be a friendly critique from a teammate turned out to be fuel for Koufax's six-year rocket ride into the Hall of Fame.

Koufax relaxed, fine-tuned his control, and spread out his velocity to up the quality of his pitch-to-pitch output.

He also zeroed in on a team's lesser hitters, dominating them at will to minimize the damage created by the opponent's star players.

What resulted was an unadulterated, uninhibited breakthrough.

Nailing down his first two All-Star appearances for the second-place Dodgers, Koufax led the National League in strikeouts (269), hits per 9 innings (7.5), strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.80), and FIP (3.00).

The 25-year-old lefty also paced the Majors in strikeouts per 9 innings (9.5), and set new career bests in wins (18), starts (35), complete games (15), and innings pitched (255.2).

As good as Koufax's '61 campaign was, though, it was just a lead-in to perhaps the greatest five-year stretch for a pitcher in baseball history.

1961 Topps #492 Ron Fairly

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value (Green Baseball): $800

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value (White Baseball): $40

Ron Fairly spent twenty-one seasons in the Majors with six different ball clubs, mostly with the Los Angeles Dodgers for twelve seasons from 1958  to 1969.

After struggling midway through the 1969 season, Fairly found himself as part of a multi-player trade that sent him to the Montreal Expos.

And in his fifth year in Montreal in 1973, Fairly morphed into an All-Star at 34 years old.

After finishing his stint with the Expos in 1974, Fairly spent the 1975 season and part of 1976 in St. Louis while finishing it in Oakland.

In 1977, Fairly returned to Canada, this time with the Toronto Blue Jays where he earned his second trip to the All-Star Game at 38 years old.

Fairly was always a solid player, but playing in Canada seemed to lift him to All-Star status.

And since he's less well-known as the numerous big-name Hall of Famers on this list, you may wonder why Fairly's card can be worth so much.

Well, there are two variations of his card, and the rare variation is the expensive one.

If you look at the reverse of the standard variation of this card, you'll see the baseball on the back free of any print defects.

However, on the rarer variation, you'll see it with a green print smudge.

If you can find the "Green Baseball" variation in high grade, it can have significant value.

1961 Topps #417 Juan Marichal Rookie Card

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $750

After a few years working his way up the Giants farm system ranks, right-handed starter Juan Marichal broke into the Majors with a bang in 1960, spinning three complete games and three wins in his first nine days on the job.

It was a bewildering first impression.

However, Marichal wasn't quite ready to be the consistent ace at the top of the Giants' rotation.

In 1961, the 23-year-old Dominican Republic native had much to juggle.

He was still acclimating to big-league life and life in the United States, and it didn't help that he had to keep one eye on the political and cultural upheaval in the DR.

After long-standing dictator Rafael Trujillo was assassinated in a coup by his own armed forces on May 30th, 1961, Marichal had concerns about the safety of his family and his fiancee, Alma.

Marichal would return to the DR during Spring Training in '62, bringing Alma home with him a few days later.

Before that, the uncertainty of everything took its toll on Marichal's '61 performance.

It was by no means a horrible season.

Marichal finished 13-10 with a serviceable 3.89 ERA, surrendering 183 hits and 24 home runs in 185 innings pitched.

However, Marichal often left pitches smack dab in the middle of opposing hitters' sweet spots, giving up 8.9 hits per nine innings and 1.2 homers per nine.

In later years, Marichal would become one of the most feared pinpoint pitches of his generation.

1961 Topps #482 Willie Mays MVP

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $700

From 1954 to 1966, Willie Mays finished in the top six of the National League MVP vote every year except 1956 when he fell to seventeenth.

In 1954, Mays led the Majors in batting average (.345) and slugging percentage (.667) while belting 41 home runs with 110 RBIs and 119 runs scored to earn his first of two career MVP honors.

As a result, Topps included him in their MVPs subset in their 1961 set release.

On his MVP card, Mays stares intensely at bat emblazoned atop a bright blue background that gives it fantastic eye appeal.

Despite finishing near the top of the National League MVP vote so many times, Mays wouldn't win his second and final MVP until the 1965 season.

You could easily argue that Mays should've won the MVP on multiple other occasions, and you'd likely not find too many people who would argue with you.

Mays was easily one of the best baseball players ever to play the game, and many would say he was the best ever.

He was a five-tool talent many former and current MLB players could only hope to emulate.

1961 Topps #141 Billy Williams Rookie Card

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $600

From afterthought to sensation, rookie Chicago Cubs left fielder Billy Williams hit the ground running in 1961.

Signed by the Cubs for a pittance in 1956, Williams spent his teens and early twenties proving his mettle in the minor leagues.

His power and raw hitting potential were undeniable, leading to cups of coffee with the big-league club in '59 and '60.

The latter was a trial run for 1961 when Williams landed the full-time left field job at Wrigley.

Unwilling to let this opportunity go to waste, the 23-year-old lefty swinger quickly became a fan favorite in the Windy City.

Forever immortalized as "Sweet Swinging Billy Williams," the future Hall of Famer provided the perfect mix of power, consistency, and personality.

You couldn't help but root for him.

And his explosive, buttery swing made it even easier.

Named the 1961 NL Rookie of the Year despite playing for a miserable seventh-place squad, Williams slashed .278/.338/.484 with 25 home runs, 20 doubles, seven triples, 75 runs scored, and 86 RBIs in 529 at-bats.

1961 Topps #287 Carl Yastrzemski

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $600

Carl Yastrzemski’s rookie season was a no-win proposition from day one.

Tabbed as the heir apparent to the great Ted Williams, the new Boston Red Sox appearance had a once-in-a-lifetime shadow to shake off.

He was just 21 years old with two years of pro baseball under his belt.

He wasn’t ready (or suited) to be the next Ted Williams.

“I started off very slow,” Yastrzemski said. “I actually think that was on account of Ted. I was trying to emulate him – be a home run hitter and not be myself.”

The pressure shifted uncomfortably on the young kid’s shoulders.

It only started to ease up when Williams visited the team for a spell, urging Yastrzemski to calm down, simplify things, and trust his swing.

Yaz obliged and locked into a groove as the ‘61 season progressed.

Shaking off his ice-cold start, Yastrzemski hit to a .266/.324/.396 slash line with eleven homers, 31 doubles, six triples, six stolen bases, 71 runs scored, and 80 RBIs in 643 plate appearances (583 at-bats).

Boston stumbled and bumbled to a sixth-place finish in the AL.

But, there was at least a glimmer of hope for seasons to come as Yastrzemski began to figure himself out.

1961 Topps #579 Willie Mays All-Star

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $550

Perhaps nearly as iconic as his talent with the bat and glove was the "Say Hey Kid's" big bright smile.

And it's on full display on his 1961 Topps Sporting News All-Star card.

When you look at Mays's resume, it's incredible what he achieved.

After winning the 1951 NL Rookie of the Year, Mays would become a two-time MVP, 24-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glover and a World Series champion in 1954.

And those are only some of the highlights.

And let's not forget that Mays spent most of the 1952 season and all of 1953 away from MLB because of military service during the Korean War.

Had he played those two seasons and been healthy, there's no question he'd be a member of the 700 home run club and the 2000 RBI club.

For good reason, this card will continue to be one of the most important cards in this set for years to come.

1961 Topps #290 Stan Musial

Estimated PSA 8 NM-MT Value: $450

Rumors of Stan Musial's decline were greatly exaggerated in 1961.

"The Man" celebrated his 40th birthday during the offseason, with all signs pointing to a drop-off point in his 20th MLB season.

He had hit just .255 and .275 in the two previous seasons, well off his eventual career batting average of .331.

While his '61 season wasn't quite a throwback to the MVP-level production of years past, he was still an All-Star hitter.

His trademark lunging swing remained a thing of beauty.

And even though power numbers weren't on his peak level, the St. Louis Cardinals left fielder could still hack it with the best of 'em.

In 123 games played for the National League's fifth-place club, Musial slashed .288/.371/.489 with 15 home runs, 22 doubles, four triples, 46 runs scored, and 70 RBIs.

Fending off retirement speculation for two years running, Musial still had something left in the tank to give.

1961 Topps Baseball Cards In Review

It's easy to see why many hobbyists consider this set arguably the best of the 1960s.

With an incredibly strong checklist, a beautifully classic design, and ties to the many historical events of the 1961 MLB season, it's easy to love.

The list of Hall of Famers is outstanding and having three of them appear as rookie cards is an even bigger bonus.

Let's not forget the great subsets that Topps released, including:

• League Leaders (#41 - 50)
• Managers (#131 - 139); (#219 - 226)
• World Series Highlights (#306 - 313)
• Baseball Thrills (#401 - 410)
• Most Valuable Players (#471 - 486)
• Sporting News All-Stars (#566 - 589)

The "Most Valuable Players" and "Sporting News All-Stars" subsets in particular have remained collector favorites and will likely continue to hold up well into the future.

There's something for everyone in this set.

And you can include me among those collectors who think this is one of the best vintage sets, not just of the 1960s but of the vintage era in general.