1951 Topps Red Back #31 Gil Hodges
About Gil Hodges
Brooklyn chased the Philadelphia Phillies to the final day of the 1950 season and finished 89-65, two games short of the pennant. Hodges, sixth in the Opening Day batting order behind Jackie Robinson and Carl Furillo, played all 153 of his games at first base. His 32 home runs were nine more than he had hit in 1949, and he drove in 113 runs while scoring 98. He made the National League All-Star team for the second straight year.
Gil Hodges played 18 major league seasons -- one game in 1943, then 1947 through 1963 -- nearly all of them at first base for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. Teammates included Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Duke Snider. Born in Princeton, Indiana, the son of a coal miner, he left the Dodgers 11 days after his debut to join the Marines, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner at Tinian and Okinawa and earning a Bronze Star with a combat V. He returned as the outstanding first baseman of the 1950s, an eight-time All-Star with 370 home runs, 1,274 runs batted in and a .273 average. He hit four home runs against the Braves on August 31, 1950, and won the first three Gold Gloves ever awarded at his position. He played first base for six Dodgers pennant winners, drove in both runs in the seventh game that finally gave Brooklyn a World Series in 1955, and batted .391 when Los Angeles won the 1959 Series. Managing followed: five rebuilding years with the expansion Washington Senators, then the Mets, whom he took to 100 wins and the 1969 championship. He died of a heart attack on April 2, 1972, two days short of his 48th birthday, and entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 515 | 1 | 28 | 107 | 52 | 52 | 84 | 191 | 0 |
| SGC | 153 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 16 | 9 | 11 | 111 | 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 Brooklyn Dodgers
More Brooklyn Dodgers cards:
- Red Back #11 Gene Hermanski
- Red Back #16 Preacher Roe
- Red Back #38 Duke Snider
- Blue Back #20 Ralph Branca
- Blue Back #42 Bruce Edwards
- Blue Back #48 Billy Cox
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1951 Topps Red Back #31 card?
It is Red Back #31 in the 135-card 1951 Topps Baseball checklist, picturing Gil Hodges of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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.