1961 Topps #247 Billy Goodman
About Billy Goodman
By 1961 Goodman was a 35-year-old utility man closing out his run with the Chicago White Sox, the club he had joined in the December 1957 trade that sent Larry Doby to Baltimore. Chicago made him available for the 1960 expansion draft and no club selected him, so he stayed on as a spare infielder and pinch-hitter, getting into 41 games and batting .255 while Al Lopez's fourth-place club went 86-76. The White Sox released him the following spring, and he caught on with Houston. This card is number 247 in Topps' 1961 set, issued in the third of the year's print series.
Billy Goodman was a left-handed hitting infielder who played sixteen major league seasons, from 1947 through 1962, with the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, and Houston Colt .45s. A Concord, North Carolina, native who signed with the Atlanta Crackers, he reached Boston when the Red Sox bought his contract in February 1947, and he became known for extraordinary versatility, playing every position in the majors except catcher and pitcher. In 1950 he won the American League batting title with a .354 average and finished as runner-up for Most Valuable Player, recognized as the only man ever to take a batting crown without a regular position. A two-time All-Star, he batted over .290 in eleven seasons and finished with a .300 lifetime average and a .376 on-base percentage. Traded to Baltimore in 1957 and then to Chicago that winter, he platooned at third base for the pennant-winning 1959 White Sox, who lost the World Series to the Dodgers in six games, and he closed his playing days with Houston's inaugural club. He later managed in the minors and coached for the Atlanta Braves. He is a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, but not the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 256 | 0 | 8 | 93 | 104 | 26 | 15 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 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: #7 Chicago White Sox Team
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #30 Nellie Fox
- #56 Russ Kemmerer
- #79 Joe Ginsberg
- #90 Jerry Staley
- #124 J.C. Martin
- #132 Al Lopez
- #152 Earl Torgeson
- #157 Cal McLish
- #170 Al Smith
- #185 Herb Score
- #205 Bill Pierce
- #227 Juan Pizarro
- #271 Jim Landis
- #285 Sherm Lollar
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #247 card?
It is card #247 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Goodman of the Chicago White Sox.
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.