1960 Topps #40 Joe Cunningham
About Joe Cunningham
Joe Cunningham broke in with a bang. Signed by the Cardinals out of Lodi High School in New Jersey in 1949, the left-handed first baseman debuted on June 30, 1954, homering against the Reds, then hit two more off future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn the next day — three homers and nine RBIs in his first two games, a record that stood until 2018. Blocked when Stan Musial shifted to first base in 1955, Cunningham spent two seasons mostly in the minors before reinventing himself as an outfielder in 1957. His finest year came in 1959: a .345 average, runner-up to Hank Aaron for the NL batting crown, a league-best .453 on-base percentage, and two All-Star nods. Teammates called him "Smokey Joe" after the Gaslight Square apartment he shared with Don Blasingame, above Smokey Joe's Cafe. Traded to the White Sox for Minnie Miñoso after 1961, he never fully recovered from a 1963 broken collarbone and retired in 1966 with a .291 average and .403 on-base percentage. He later spent decades building the Cardinals' ticket operation; Busch Stadium's "Cunningham Corner" bears his name. His 1960 Topps run includes card #40 and the short-printed high-number #562 from the Sport Magazine All-Star subset.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 411 | 0 | 21 | 208 | 114 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-08-20. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. The Venezuelan issue, the 1960 Topps Tattoos and Bazooka are separate products and are not counted here.
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Related cards
More Joe Cunningham in this set: #562 Sport Magazine All-Star
Team card: #242 St. Louis Cardinals
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #16 Ernie Broglio
- #24 Dick Gray
- #73 Bob Gibson
- #84 Hal Smith
- #101 Bob Miller
- #120 Duke Carmel
- #124 Jim Donohue
- #149 Bob Nieman
- #168 Alex Grammas
- #195 Lindy McDaniel
- #197 Ron Kline
- #218 Solly Hemus
- #236 Dick Ricketts
- #250 Stan Musial
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1960 Topps #40 card?
It is card #40 of the 572-card 1960 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Cunningham.
What is the 1960 Topps Venezuelan version?
Topps licensed a parallel printing for the Venezuelan market covering roughly the first 196 cards. It is a separate issue on thinner stock with Spanish text on the back, collected on its own and not part of finishing this 572-card set.
How many cards are in the 1960 Topps Baseball set?
572 cards, numbered 1-572, issued in seven series - the last Topps flagship printed entirely horizontally. Cards #375-440 exist on two back stocks, white and gray, which collectors chasing every printed variety count as 638 pieces of cardboard in all.
Sources: Trading Card Database, Cardboard Connection, the PSA price guide, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-08-20.