1958 Topps #168 Joe Cunningham
About Joe Cunningham
Joe Cunningham's 1958 Topps card is #168, a Series Two card showing him as a St. Louis Cardinal. His 1957 was the breakout behind it: he learned right field, platooned with Del Ennis, hit .318 with 9 home runs and 52 RBI in 122 games, and batted .400 as a pinch-hitter, including a game-winning grand slam against the Giants. In 1958 he hit .312 with 12 homers, and the press started calling him Smokey Joe.
Joe Cunningham was a left-handed-hitting first baseman and outfielder who played twelve major-league seasons (1954, 1956-1966) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators. Signed by the Cardinals out of Lodi High School in New Jersey in 1949, he lost two minor-league years to the Army. He bought an outfielder's glove and learned right field in 1957, after Stan Musial had moved back to first base, and broke out in 1959: a .345 average, second in the National League to Hank Aaron, a league-leading .453 on-base percentage, and selection to both All-Star Games played that summer, the only All-Star honors of his career. The press began calling him Smokey Joe in 1958. He finished with 980 hits, 64 home runs, 436 RBI, a .291 average and a .403 on-base percentage that ranks 48th all time among players with at least 3,000 plate appearances. Cunningham later managed Cardinals farm clubs and spent two decades in the team's front office, building its group and season ticket departments and introducing the mascot Fredbird. He entered the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and died March 25, 2021, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 286 | 1 | 19 | 110 | 80 | 39 | 30 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 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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Related cards
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #8 Eddie Kasko
- #8B Eddie Kasko (Yellow Name)
- #24 Hobie Landrith
- #24B Hobie Landrith (Yellow Name)
- #53 Morrie Martin
- #53B Morrie Martin (Yellow Name)
- #60 Del Ennis
- #60B Del Ennis (Yellow Name)
- #65 Von McDaniel
- #65B Von McDaniel (Yellow Name)
- #97 Larry Jackson
- #97B Larry Jackson (Yellow Name)
- #106 Dick Schofield
- #114 Irv Noren
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Joe Cunningham card?
It is card #168 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 Joe Cunningham, St. Louis Cardinals.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Joe Cunningham #168 are there?
PSA has graded 286 copies and SGC 11 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.