1961 Topps #232 Bill White
About Bill White
White has two cards in the 1961 set. On July 5 in Los Angeles, White became the first player to clear the Coliseum's distant right-field fence three times in one game, part of a 9-1 Cardinals win. Two weeks later he went 14-for-18 across consecutive doubleheaders against the Cubs in St. Louis, tying the mark Ty Cobb set in 1912, and he closed the year at .286 with 28 doubles, 11 triples, 20 home runs and 90 RBIs plus his second straight Gold Glove. Card #232 is a standard series-3 card. Card #451, titled Power For Ernie, is a series-6 card that shares the front with Ernie Broglio and Daryl Spencer.
Bill White was a left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing first baseman who played 13 major-league seasons for the Giants, Cardinals and Phillies, batting .286 with 202 home runs and 870 RBIs. His family joined the Black migration north to Warren, Ohio when he was three, and his grandmother raised him there while his mother worked. He chose Hiram College for its pre-med program, then signed with the Giants in 1953 after asking Leo Durocher for a $2,500 bonus so he could pay for school. He homered in his first big-league at-bat on May 7, 1956, lost 1957 to the Army, and after a March 1959 trade to St. Louis became one of the National League's best all-around players: seven straight Gold Gloves from 1960 through 1966, eight All-Star selections, career highs across the board in 1963, and a World Series ring with the 1964 Cardinals. He also spoke out, criticizing a 1961 St. Petersburg civic breakfast that invited only white players. He later called Yankees games for 18 seasons and served as National League president from 1989 to 1994, the first Black president of a major sports league. The Cardinals elected him to their team Hall of Fame in 2020, and in 2026 the National Baseball Hall of Fame gave him its Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Baseball Almanac (3)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 335 | 1 | 20 | 155 | 88 | 41 | 16 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 35 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 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
More Bill White in this set: #451 Power For Ernie
Team card: #347 St. Louis Cardinals Team
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #11 Curt Simmons
- #32 Ray Sadecki
- #52 George Crowe
- #64 Alex Grammas
- #75 Lindy Shows Larry
- #91 Walt Moryn
- #118 Chris Cannizzaro
- #127 Ron Kline
- #139 Solly Hemus
- #148 Julian Javier
- #178 Bob Nieman
- #198 Carl Sawatski
- #211 Bob Gibson
- #241 Al Cicotte
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #232 card?
It is card #232 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill White of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.