1961 Topps #396 Bob Aspromonte


About Bob Aspromonte
Card #396 is a series-5 issue from Aspromonte's last season in Los Angeles, printed at shortstop for a Dodgers club that carried him as a spare infielder behind Maury Wills and Jim Gilliam. It follows a thin 1960 line: .182 with one home run in 21 games, after he had hit .412 in spring training to make the Opening Day roster. He got into 47 games in 1961 before Houston drafted him that October.
Bob Aspromonte, a third baseman from Brooklyn, signed with his hometown Dodgers in July 1956 and debuted that September as an 18-year-old pinch hitter; he became the last Brooklyn Dodger to appear in a major-league game, playing his final one in 1971. Houston took him third overall in the October 1961 expansion draft, and on April 10, 1962 he produced the first hit, run, walk and stolen base in Colt .45s/Astros history. He held Houston's third base for seven seasons, starting every Opening Day through 1968, and hit six grand slams, then a franchise record - several promised to Billy Bradley, an Arkansas boy blinded by lightning and sent to Houston for eye treatment. Traded to Atlanta in December 1968, he finished with the 1971 Mets: .252, 1,103 hits, 60 home runs, 457 RBI in 13 seasons. Known as 'Aspro,' he later ran a Houston beer distributorship and entered the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Astros Walk of Fame, its first honoree, in 2012.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 286 | 0 | 30 | 140 | 81 | 21 | 6 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 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: #86 Los Angeles Dodgers Team
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #6 Ed Roebuck
- #23 Don Demeter
- #38 Bob Lillis
- #74 Joe Pignatano
- #109 Johnny Podres
- #130 Norm Larker
- #136 Walt Alston
- #147 Ed Rakow
- #168 Tommy Davis
- #190 Stan Williams
- #207 Dodger Southpaws
- #238 Jim Gilliam
- #260 Don Drysdale
- #280 Frank Howard
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #396 card?
It is card #396 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Aspromonte of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.