1951 Topps Blue Back #9 Johnny Sain
About Johnny Sain
Sain started all 37 games he pitched for the 1950 Braves and completed 25 of them across 278 1/3 innings. A year after going 10-17 with a 4.81 ERA, he went 20-13 with a 3.94 ERA, doubling his win total and cutting 0.87 runs from the ERA. He struck out 96 and threw 3 shutouts. At the plate he hit .206 with 15 RBI, and his one home run of the year was the first of 3 in his major league career.
Johnny Sain was a right-handed pitcher known for teaming with Warren Spahn on the Boston Braves of 1946 to 1951, and afterward for his work as a pitching coach. He went 139-116 with a 3.49 ERA in 11 seasons and won 20 games for Boston in 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1950. In 1948 he went 24-15 with a 2.60 ERA, led the National League in wins, complete games and innings, finished second to Stan Musial in the MVP vote and was named The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year. A Boston Post poem from that pennant race produced "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." Navy service cost him 1943 through 1945. He was the first pitcher to face Jackie Robinson in the majors and the last to pitch to Babe Ruth in organized baseball. Boston traded him to the Yankees in 1951 for Lew Burdette and cash, and as a reliever he led the American League with 22 saves in 1954. As a coach he worked for the Kansas City Athletics, Yankees, Twins, Tigers, White Sox and Atlanta Braves. In the 1960s he coached the pitchers of five of the American League's ten pennant winners, and Whitey Ford, Mudcat Grant and Denny McLain won 20 games under him.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 194 | 0 | 25 | 41 | 18 | 27 | 43 | 40 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 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 Boston Braves cards:
- Red Back #2 Sid Gordon
- Red Back #30 Warren Spahn
- Red Back #52 Tommy Holmes
- Blue Back #12 Sam Jethroe
- Blue Back #32 Bob Elliott
- Blue Back #34 Earl Torgeson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1951 Topps Blue Back #9 card?
It is Blue Back #9 in the 135-card 1951 Topps Baseball checklist, picturing Johnny Sain of the Boston Braves.
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.