1961 Topps #553 Bill Fischer
About Bill Fischer
Card #553 sits in the seventh series, the last block of the 1961 set, and it is a high number that catches Fischer as a Tiger for the final time: on August 2 Detroit shipped him and Ozzie Virgil to Kansas City for Gerry Staley and Reno Bertoia. In Detroit that year he was a bullpen arm, 3-2 with three saves and a 5.01 ERA over 26 games, only one of them a start. His first Topps card came in 1958 with the White Sox.
William Charles Fischer, a right-handed pitcher born in Wausau, Wisconsin on October 11, 1930, worked nine major league seasons from 1956 through 1964 for the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Kansas City Athletics and Minnesota Twins. He signed with the White Sox out of a tryout camp two weeks after his 1948 high school graduation, then spent two years as a Marine Corps drill sergeant during the Korean War. Used as a swingman, he started 78 of his 281 games and finished 45-58 with a 4.34 ERA, 16 complete games, 13 saves and 313 strikeouts in 831 and one-third innings, with only three errors in 229 fielding chances. In 1962 at Kansas City he walked eight men all season and ran off 84 and one-third straight innings without a walk, erasing Christy Mathewson's 68 and setting a major league record that still stands. He pitched four more years in Triple-A after his last big league game, then coached for the Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays and stayed in uniform until his death in 2018 at 88.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 338 | 2 | 11 | 129 | 99 | 53 | 31 | 12 | 1 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
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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Related cards
Team card: #51 Detroit Tigers Team
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #13 Chuck Cottier
- #14 Don Mossi
- #37 Charlie Maxwell
- #67 Ossie Virgil
- #83 Bob Bruce
- #95 Norm Cash
- #112 Chico Fernandez
- #151 Jim Donohue
- #171 Paul Foytack
- #192 Dick Brown
- #208 Larry Osborne
- #223 Bob Scheffing
- #243 Frank Lary
- #251 Bill Bruton
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #553 card?
It is card #553 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Fischer of the Detroit Tigers.
Why is #553 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
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.