1958 Topps #98 Billy Hunter
About Billy Hunter
Billy Hunter's #98 shows him with the Kansas City Athletics, for whom he played second base and shortstop in 1957 and hit .191 with eight home runs in 116 games. The card comes from the second series of 1958 Topps. It exists in the common white-name printing and in a yellow-name lettering variation. In June 1958 the A's sent him to Cleveland for Chico Carrasquel.
Gordon William "Billy" Hunter was a glove-first shortstop from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He played football and baseball at Penn State before signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, and he was the Texas League MVP with Fort Worth in 1952. The St. Louis Browns bought him for three players and $95,000, and in 1953 he was their Opening Day shortstop, an American League All-Star, and the hitter of the last home run in Browns history. He moved with the club to Baltimore in 1954, was part of the huge 1954 trade with the Yankees, and sat on the bench for New York's 1956 World Series winner. He then played for Kansas City and Cleveland, finishing with a .219 average over 630 games. As a coach he served as Orioles third base coach under Hank Bauer and Earl Weaver, on World Series winners in 1966 and 1970, then managed the Texas Rangers to a 146-108 record over 1977 and 1978. He later coached baseball and served as athletic director at Towson State. He is in the Orioles Hall of Fame (1996) and the Towson University Hall of Fame (1998).
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · BaseballCardPedia
Variations & how to tell them apart
Yellow Name (YN) #98
Nineteen Series 1/early-2 cards exist with the player name printed in yellow instead of white, including stars Aaron (#30), Kaline (#70) and McDougald (#20).
- #98 — base card: the lettering is printed in WHITE — the base, more common version. (this page)
- #98B — Yellow Name: the player name is printed in YELLOW — the scarcer version, roughly 2-2.5x tougher than white per PSA populations. — see the card page
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 260 | 0 | 2 | 97 | 85 | 43 | 20 | 12 | 1 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Related cards
More Billy Hunter in this set: #98B Yellow Name
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #3 Alex Kellner
- #23 Bill Tuttle
- #23B Bill Tuttle (Yellow Name)
- #39 Bob Martyn
- #62 Joe DeMaestri
- #69 Wally Burnette
- #98B Billy Hunter (Yellow Name)
- #119 Harry Chiti
- #139 George Brunet
- #155 Hector Lopez
- #169 Ralph Terry
- #174 Kansas City Athletics Team
- #192 Milt Graff
- #202 Woodie Held
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Billy Hunter card?
It is card #98 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Billy Hunter, Kansas City Athletics.
Does the 1958 Topps Billy Hunter #98 have a yellow variation?
Yes - #98 is one of the 33 cards that also exist with yellow lettering. This page covers the common white-letter version; the yellow version runs roughly 2-2.5x scarcer per PSA population data.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Billy Hunter #98 are there?
PSA has graded 260 copies and SGC 27 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.