1961 Topps #371 Bill Skowron
About Bill Skowron
All three rest on 1960, when Skowron hit .309 with 26 home runs and 91 runs batted in, then batted .375 in the World Series Pittsburgh won on Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning homer. Card #42, "American League 1960 Batting Leaders," is a series-1 League Leaders card; his .309 is the fourth average on it, behind Pete Runnels' league-best .320, with Al Smith and Minnie Minoso between. Card #371 is his plain series-5 portrait, and #568 is the series-7 high number honoring him as the Sporting News major league first baseman.
William Joseph Skowron, a Chicago kid of Polish descent, played fourteen major league seasons from 1954 through 1967 and spent nine of them at first base for the New York Yankees. The nickname arrived early: a crew cut from his grandfather left him looking, to his father's semi-pro teammates, like Benito Mussolini, and "Mussolini" was soon shortened to "Moose." He went to Purdue on a football scholarship, signed with the Yankees in 1950 for a $22,000 bonus, and was named The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year in 1952. Casey Stengel platooned him at first base before he took the job outright in 1958. Skowron reached eight All-Star Games across six seasons (1957 through 1961, then 1965) and won four titles in New York, his three-run homer off Lew Burdette breaking open Game Seven of the 1958 World Series. In 1961 he, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, the Three M's, combined for a record 143 home runs. Traded to Los Angeles after 1962, he batted .385 as the Dodgers swept his old club for a fifth ring. He finished at .282 with 211 home runs and 888 runs batted in, entered the National Polish-American Hall of Fame in 1980, and worked for the White Sox as a community affairs representative from 1999 until his death in 2012.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 983 | 2 | 62 | 351 | 283 | 158 | 74 | 52 | 1 |
| SGC | 145 | 0 | 8 | 25 | 49 | 26 | 22 | 13 | 2 |
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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Shop 1961 Topps cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
More Bill Skowron in this set: #42 League Leaders, #568 Sporting News All-Stars
Team card: #228 New York Yankees Team
More New York Yankees cards:
- #2 Roger Maris
- #19 Cletis Boyer
- #28 Hector Lopez
- #40 Bob Turley
- #68 Deron Johnson
- #104 John Blanchard
- #116 Joe DeMaestri
- #133 Ralph Houk
- #142 Luis Arroyo
- #160 Whitey Ford
- #180 Bobby Richardson
- #213 Bill Stafford
- #252 Bill Short
- #265 Tony Kubek
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #371 card?
It is card #371 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Skowron of the New York Yankees.
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.