1961 Topps #237 Billy Loes
About Billy Loes
This 1961 Topps card, #237 in the set's third series, catches Loes with the San Francisco Giants in what turned out to be his last big-league season. A strong spring won him a spot in manager Al Dark's rotation, and on May 7 he threw the last of his nine career shutouts, blanking the Philadelphia Phillies on seven hits. Inconsistent and hurting after that, he finished 6-5 with a 4.24 ERA in 114 2/3 innings, his heaviest workload in three years. The Giants sold him conditionally to the expansion Mets that winter, but he quit in a tirade before camp opened, insulted that New York had not acknowledged his sore shoulder, and San Francisco released him on March 2, 1962.
Billy Loes, born William Loes in Long Island City, New York, in 1929, was a right-handed pitcher who spent eleven seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants between 1950 and 1961, with 1951 lost to Army service. Brooklyn signed him out of Bryant High School for a $21,000 bonus, the largest the club had paid at the time. He broke through in 1952 at 13-8 with a 2.69 ERA, then won a career-high 14 games in 1953. He started Game Six of the 1952 World Series with Brooklyn a win from the title and took the loss, after a balk and a grounder he said he lost in the sun. He beat the Yankees in Game Four in 1953 for his only Series win, and was on the 1955 champions, though he lost his only start that October. Shoulder trouble led the Dodgers to sell him to Baltimore in May 1956; he rebounded to make the 1957 All-Star team, and a trade sent him to San Francisco for his last two seasons. He finished 80-63 with a 3.89 ERA and 645 strikeouts in 1,190 1/3 innings, and in 1990 was inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers 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 | 311 | 2 | 31 | 175 | 68 | 20 | 11 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 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: #167 San Francisco Giants Team
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #31 Bob Schmidt
- #55 Jim Davenport
- #72 Stu Miller
- #87 Joe Amalfitano
- #96 Billy O'Dell
- #114 Hobie Landrith
- #150 Willie Mays
- #161 Sherman Jones
- #188 Jim Marshall
- #203 Eddie Bressoud
- #220 Al Dark
- #258 Jack Sanford
- #279 Jose Pagan
- #294 Don Blasingame
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #237 card?
It is card #237 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Billy Loes of the San Francisco Giants.
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.