1951 Topps Red Back #52 Tommy Holmes
About Tommy Holmes
Holmes batted .298 with 9 home runs and 51 RBI in 105 games in 1950, a year when the Braves finished fourth. That winter, at 33, he was named player-manager of the Class A Hartford Chiefs. On June 19, 1951, with Boston struggling under Billy Southworth, he was called back to take over the club, which went 48-47 under him. His Topps biography was revised during the 1951 run to reflect the Hartford job.
Tommy Holmes was a left-handed line-drive hitter who played the outfield for the Boston Braves from 1942 through 1951. A Brooklyn native signed by the Yankees, he spent five seasons in their farm system behind DiMaggio, Keller and Henrich before the Braves bought him in December 1941. He hit .300 or better every year from 1944 to 1948. In 1945 he led the National League with 224 hits, 28 home runs and 47 doubles, batted .352, struck out only 9 times, and hit safely in 37 straight games from June 6 to July 8, a modern NL record at the time. He finished second in the MVP voting. As the leadoff man on the 1948 pennant winner he drove in the run that beat Bob Feller 1-0 in the opening game of the World Series. He managed the Braves for 95 games in 1951 and 35 in 1952, was fired on May 31, 1952, and finished that year with Brooklyn. He retired with a .302 average, 88 home runs and 581 RBI in 1,320 games, then worked for the New York Mets in amateur baseball relations from 1973 for three decades. He died in Boca Raton, Florida, on April 14, 2008.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Variations
This card comes in two versions: #52a - Boston and #52b - Hartford. The difference is on the back of the card.
Variations catalogued by the PSA master set registry and the Trading Card Database.
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Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #52a - Boston | |||||||||
| PSA | 161 | 0 | 11 | 20 | 10 | 24 | 41 | 55 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 0 |
| #52b - Hartford | |||||||||
| PSA | 163 | 0 | 16 | 37 | 16 | 18 | 29 | 47 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 0 |
| Not designated by SGC | |||||||||
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 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. Where a grader registers a variation separately its population is listed under that variation; SGC slabs whose label names no variation are listed as not designated, while PSA slabs whose label names no variation are counted under #52a - Boston.
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Related cards
More Boston Braves cards:
- Red Back #2 Sid Gordon
- Red Back #30 Warren Spahn
- Blue Back #9 Johnny Sain
- Blue Back #12 Sam Jethroe
- Blue Back #32 Bob Elliott
- Blue Back #34 Earl Torgeson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1951 Topps Red Back #52 card?
It is Red Back #52 in the 135-card 1951 Topps Baseball checklist, picturing Tommy Holmes of the Boston Braves.
Does 1951 Topps Red Back #52 have variations?
Yes. It comes in two versions: #52a - Boston (The biography does not mention Hartford) and #52b - Hartford (The biography mentions his new job as player-manager of the Hartford Chiefs). Either one fills its place in the set; the master set takes both.
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.