1951 Topps Blue Back #51 Eddie Waitkus
About Eddie Waitkus
Waitkus batted leadoff for the 1950 Phillies, the Whiz Kids team that won the National League pennant, a year after a fan shot him in a Chicago hotel room on June 14, 1949 and ended his season. He played all 154 games, collected 182 hits, hit .284 and led the club with 102 runs. After the season the Associated Press named him its Comeback Player of the Year. In the World Series against the Yankees he went 4 for 15 as Philadelphia was swept in four games.
Eddie Waitkus was a left-handed first baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles in 11 seasons from 1941 to 1955, and the ballplayer shot by an obsessed fan at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel on June 14, 1949. The son of Lithuanian immigrants, he grew up in Boston, attended Boston College and spoke Lithuanian, Polish, German and French. He saw heavy fighting with the Army in the Philippines in World War II and earned four Bronze Stars. He hit .304 for the Cubs in 1946 and made the All-Star team in 1948 and 1949, the second time as a Phillie after a trade that sent him and Hank Borowy to Philadelphia for Monk Dubiel and Dutch Leonard. Ruth Ann Steinhagen, who had fixed on him in his Cubs years, lured him to her room with a note and shot him with a .22 rifle; the bullet entered his lung, and he sat out the rest of a season in which he had hit .306 in 54 games. Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel The Natural may have drawn on the story. Baltimore bought him for $40,000 before the 1954 season, and he finished 1955 in Philadelphia. He retired with 1,214 hits and a .285 average in 1,140 games and died of esophageal cancer in Boston on September 16, 1972.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 134 | 0 | 4 | 18 | 11 | 16 | 19 | 66 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 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: Team card Philadelphia Phillies
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
- Red Back #45 Andy Seminick
- Blue Back #3 Richie Ashburn
- Blue Back #4 Del Ennis
- Blue Back #8 Dick Sisler
- Blue Back #29 Granville Hamner
- Blue Back #43 Willie Jones
- Major League All-Star Jim Konstanty
- Major League All-Star Robin Roberts
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1951 Topps Blue Back #51 card?
It is Blue Back #51 in the 135-card 1951 Topps Baseball checklist, picturing Eddie Waitkus of the Philadelphia Phillies.
What are the key cards in 1951 Topps?
The three rarest are the Major League All-Stars of Jim Konstanty, Robin Roberts and Eddie Stanky, the three short prints of the issue. Red Back #1 Yogi Berra leads the Red Backs and Blue Back #3 Richie Ashburn the Blue Backs, with Blue Back #50 Johnny Mize and Blue Back #37 Bobby Doerr next; Red Back #49 Al Zarilla and Blue Back #51 Eddie Waitkus are the hardest of the two decks to find in top condition. Of the Team cards, the Boston Red Sox (Ted Williams' first Topps card) and the St. Louis Cardinals are the scarcest, and the Brooklyn Dodgers card pictures Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese and Roy Campanella. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig lead Connie Mack's All-Stars, and Yogi Berra the Major League All-Stars.
How many cards are in the 1951 Topps Baseball set?
135 cards across five issues - the Red Backs and Blue Backs (52 each), nine Team cards, and eleven each of Connie Mack's All-Stars and the Major League All-Stars. With the Zernial and Holmes variations and both versions of each Team card the master set is 146. All 135 count toward the full set; Jim Konstanty, Robin Roberts and Eddie Stanky, the three rarest Major League All-Stars, are so rarely seen that collectors often count a complete set as 132 without them.
Sources: PSA, BaseballCardPedia, Trading Card Database, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-26.