1960 Topps #157 Rocky Nelson
About Rocky Nelson
Glenn Richard "Rocky" Nelson, a left-handed first baseman from Portsmouth, Ohio, earned his nickname at a Cardinals training camp when teammate Whitey Kurowski bounced a ball off his head during a pepper game and started calling him "Rocky." Signed by St. Louis in 1942, he lost three seasons to World War II Army service before debuting in the majors in 1949. For a decade he was one of baseball's greatest paradoxes: a minor-league legend -- three-time International League MVP (1953, 1955, 1958) with two Triple Crowns, for Montreal and Toronto -- who couldn't stick as an everyday major leaguer with the Cardinals, Pirates, White Sox, Dodgers or Indians. Pittsburgh finally gave him his chance in 1959, and Nelson platooned at first through 1961, hitting .291 and .300 in his two full seasons. His 1960 Topps card, #157, catches him mid-championship run: that October he started four World Series games and drove in a run with a first-inning, two-run homer off Bob Turley in the same Game Seven that Bill Mazeroski won with his historic walk-off. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 409 | 0 | 13 | 135 | 165 | 58 | 25 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
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
Team card: #484 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #2 Roman Mejias
- #20 Roy Face
- #48 Hal Smith
- #49 Curt Raydon
- #55 Bill Mazeroski
- #58 Gino Cimoli
- #91 Bennie Daniels
- #104 Dick Schofield
- #113 Bob Skinner
- #115 Fork & Knuckler
- #133 Manuel Javier
- #145 Jim Umbricht
- #209 Ron Blackburn
- #223 Danny Murtaugh
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1960 Topps #157 card?
It is card #157 of the 572-card 1960 Topps Baseball set, picturing Rocky Nelson.
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.