1958 Topps #15 Jim Lemon
About Jim Lemon
Lemon's 1958 Topps card is #15, a Series One Senators issue from the 494-card set. He came off 1957 with a career-best .284 average in 137 games, though he led the American League in strikeouts again with 94. In 1958 he beat out prospect Neil Chrisley for the right-field job, homered on Opening Day in front of President Eisenhower and hit 26 home runs.
James Robert Lemon was born March 23, 1928 in Covington, Virginia, the third of six children raised by a paper-mill millwright and his wife. Everybody called him Bob until Cleveland signed him out of Covington High School in 1947, and he took the name Jim to avoid confusion with Indians ace Bob Lemon. Two Army years in 1951 and 1952, spent mostly at Fort Meade, Maryland, cost him his swing, and the Indians sold him to the Washington Senators for a reported $20,000 in May 1954. The 6-foot-4 slugger finally won a regular job in 1956 at age 28 and held it through 1960, hitting at least 26 home runs four times and driving in exactly 100 runs in both 1959 and 1960. On August 31, 1956 he hit three straight homers off Whitey Ford with President Eisenhower in the Griffith Stadium stands, joining Joe DiMaggio as the only men to homer three times in that cavernous park. He moved with the franchise to Minnesota in 1961, but a shoulder injury took his power, and he retired after 1963 with 164 home runs and a .262 average. He coached the Twins in two stints, managed Washington in 1968, entered the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1988, and died in 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 289 | 0 | 10 | 94 | 110 | 44 | 15 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 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 Jim Lemon card?
It is card #15 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 Jim Lemon, Washington Senators.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Jim Lemon #15 are there?
PSA has graded 289 copies and SGC 18 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.