1958 Topps #81 Steve Boros
About Steve Boros
Number 81 in the first series of 1958 Topps is a recognised rookie card, and it pictures Boros as a Detroit Tiger after his bonus-baby debut on June 19, 1957: 24 games, a .146 average and two runs batted in. It exists in the common white-lettered version and a yellow team lettering variation, both printed #81. With the bonus rule gone, he opened 1958 in the minors and got back to Detroit for six September games.
Steve Boros grew up in Flint, Michigan, the eldest of five children in a Hungarian-American family; his father had arrived from Hungary alone as a teenager, and his parents opened a small grocery in 1946, with the family living above the store. He played football, basketball and baseball at Flint Northern High School, then hit .324 and .381 in two varsity seasons at the University of Michigan and was an All-Big Ten third baseman in 1957. Teammates elected him captain for the following year, but that June he signed with the Detroit Tigers for a $25,000 bonus, finishing a bachelor's degree in English at odd hours between seasons. He played all or parts of seven major league seasons at third base for the Tigers, Cubs and Reds, batting .245 with 26 home runs and 149 RBIs. His life in the game ran close to fifty years in all: minor league manager, base-stealing instructor, big-league coach, manager of the Athletics and the Padres, then scout and executive, closing with Detroit in 2004. He died in 2010.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Variations & how to tell them apart
Yellow Team (YT) #81
Fourteen Series 1/early-2 cards exist with the team/city name printed in yellow instead of white. The white version is the common counterpart; yellow variants run roughly 2-2.5x scarcer.
- #81 — base card: the lettering is printed in WHITE — the base, more common version. (this page)
- #81B — Yellow Team: the team/city 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 | 204 | 0 | 1 | 74 | 55 | 45 | 13 | 15 | 1 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 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 Steve Boros in this set: #81B Yellow Team
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #13 Billy Hoeft
- #13B Billy Hoeft (Yellow Name)
- #32 J.W. Porter
- #32B J.W. Porter (Yellow Name)
- #46 Lou Sleater
- #46B Lou Sleater (Yellow Name)
- #57 Tim Thompson
- #57B Tim Thompson (Yellow Name)
- #70 Al Kaline
- #70B Al Kaline (Yellow Name)
- #81B Steve Boros (Yellow Team)
- #95 Frank Bolling
- #112 Gus Zernial
- #115 Jim Bunning
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Steve Boros card?
It is card #81 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 Steve Boros, Detroit Tigers.
Is the 1958 Topps Steve Boros #81 a rookie card?
Yes - #81 is a rookie card, one of 103 in the 1958 Topps set.
Does the 1958 Topps Steve Boros #81 have a yellow variation?
Yes - #81 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 Steve Boros #81 are there?
PSA has graded 204 copies and SGC 24 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.
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.