1958 Topps #311 Bob Purkey
About Bob Purkey
Bob Purkey's 1958 Topps #311, a Series Four card, shows him with Cincinnati after the December 1957 trade that sent Don Gross to Pittsburgh. Purkey had gone 11-14 with a 3.86 ERA and two saves in 48 games for the 1957 Pirates, starting 21 of them. Branch Rickey had taught him the knuckleball. In 1958 he moved into the Cincinnati rotation, went 17-11 with a 3.60 ERA and made the National League All-Star team.
Bob Purkey was a right-handed Pittsburgh native who pitched thirteen big-league seasons, from 1954 through 1966, for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals. Signed by his hometown Pirates out of South Hills High School, he went 16-29 over four years for second-division Pittsburgh clubs; midway through that run, in 1955, general manager Branch Rickey sent him to the minors and taught him a knuckleball in ten pitches. The pitch made his name, though he insisted he was really a sinker and slider man who lived on control, walking just 2.2 batters per nine innings. A December 1957 trade to Cincinnati for Don Gross remade him: over seven Reds seasons he went 103-76, was picked for five All-Star squads across three summers, and anchored the 1961 pennant winners. His best year was 1962, when he finished 23-5 with a 2.81 ERA, led all major-league pitchers in winning percentage, and placed third in the balloting for the lone Cy Young Award. A sore arm in the spring of 1963 took the rest; he wound up 129-115 with 793 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA, and Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame in 1974.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 268 | 0 | 4 | 83 | 93 | 53 | 15 | 19 | 1 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Bob Purkey card?
It is card #311 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 Bob Purkey, Cincinnati Reds.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Bob Purkey #311 are there?
PSA has graded 268 copies and SGC 14 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.