1958 Topps #170 Vic Wertz
About Vic Wertz
Card #170 in the second series of the 494-card 1958 Topps set shows Vic Wertz with the Cleveland Indians. It reports his 1957 season at first base: .282 with 28 home runs, 105 RBIs and 84 runs scored, good for a fourth AL All-Star selection and sixth place in AL MVP voting. A broken ankle then limited him in 1958 to 25 games and 43 at-bats.
Vic Wertz was a left-handed-hitting outfielder turned first baseman who played seventeen major league seasons from 1947 to 1963, all of them in the American League, with the Detroit Tigers, the St. Louis Browns and Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. Born in York, Pennsylvania and signed by Detroit in 1942 out of Reading High School, he broke out as the Tigers' right fielder in 1949 with 20 home runs and a career-high 133 RBIs, and he made four All-Star teams. Traded from Baltimore to Cleveland in June 1954, he was handed first base and stayed there the rest of his career. He went 8 for 16 in that fall's World Series, yet is remembered for the one he missed: a drive of more than 400 feet in Game One that Willie Mays ran down with his back to the plate. Polio put him in the hospital in August 1955 and ended his season, but he returned in 1956 for a career-high 32 home runs and the Comeback Player of the Year award. He finished with a .277 average, 266 home runs and 1,178 RBIs, built the Vic Wertz Distributing Company in Mount Clemens, Michigan, and was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 415 | 3 | 26 | 173 | 118 | 48 | 26 | 21 | 0 |
| SGC | 25 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 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 Cleveland Indians cards:
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- #2B Bob Lemon (Yellow Team)
- #22 Hal Naragon
- #35 Don Mossi
- #35B Don Mossi (Yellow Team)
- #47 Roger Maris
- #55 Chico Carrasquel
- #79 Dick Williams
- #79B Dick Williams (Yellow Team)
- #102 George Strickland
- #123 Dick Tomanek
- #133 Russ Nixon
- #158 Cleveland Indians Team
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Vic Wertz card?
It is card #170 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 Vic Wertz, Cleveland Indians.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Vic Wertz #170 are there?
PSA has graded 415 copies and SGC 25 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.