1961 Topps #44 American League 1960 Home Run Leaders - Mickey Mantle / Roger Maris / Jim Lemon / Rocky Colavito
On this card: Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Jim Lemon, Rocky Colavito
About this card
Cards #41-50 are the League Leaders subset - the first Topps set to carry one - each card listing the 1960 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
The story on this card
Topps opened its first League Leaders subset at cards 41 through 50 in 1961, and number 44 posts the American League home run board from 1960. Mickey Mantle led with 40, one clear of Yankee teammate Roger Maris at 39, though it was Maris who took the RBI crown and the AL MVP that fall. Washington's Jim Lemon was third with 38 in the original Senators' last season before the club moved to Minnesota, and Detroit's Rocky Colavito fourth with 35. Mantle and Maris went to the World Series together and lost it in seven games on Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning homer. It is a first-series card, number 44.
Mickey Mantle was the Yankees' switch-hitting center fielder across 18 seasons, a Triple Crown winner, three-time American League Most Valuable Player and seven-time World Series champion who hit 536 home runs on ruined legs. Roger Maris - the Yankees right fielder who broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record with 61 in 1961, a back-to-back American League MVP and three-time World Series champion in New York and St. Louis. He is not in Cooperstown. Jim Lemon - the 6-foot-4 Washington slugger who hit at least 26 home runs four times in the Griffith Stadium years and once homered three straight times off Whitey Ford with President Eisenhower watching from the stands. A nine-time All-Star with one of the great throwing arms of his era, Rocky Colavito tied for the 1959 American League home run crown, homered four straight times in one game that June, and led the league in RBI for Cleveland in 1965.
Sources: Wikipedia (Roger Maris) · Wikipedia (Mickey Mantle) · Wikipedia (Jim Lemon) · Wikipedia (Rocky Colavito) · SABR BioProject (Mickey Mantle) · SABR BioProject (Roger Maris) · SABR BioProject (Jim Lemon) · SABR BioProject (Rocky Colavito) · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (Mickey Mantle) · Baseball Almanac (Roger Maris) · Baseball Almanac (Jim Lemon) · Baseball Almanac (Rocky Colavito) · Cardboard Connection
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 3,852 | 4 | 67 | 460 | 745 | 764 | 629 | 1,173 | 10 |
| SGC | 1,389 | 0 | 5 | 37 | 113 | 221 | 342 | 656 | 15 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #44 card?
It is card #44 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Jim Lemon and Rocky Colavito. Cards #41-50 are the League Leaders subset - the first Topps set to carry one - each card listing the 1960 leaders in one statistical category, the National League card first and the American League card second in each pair.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, The Topps Archives, 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 2026-10-05.