1961 Topps #563 Bob Cerv
About Bob Cerv
Card #563 catches Cerv back in New York after a detour through Los Angeles. The Angels had taken him in the December 1960 expansion draft, and he was hitting .158 through 18 games when New York traded Lee Thomas, Ryne Duren, and Johnny James west on May 8 for him and Tex Clevenger. He hit .271 in 57 games, mostly off the bench, and shared a Queens apartment with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle through their chase of Babe Ruth's record, adding six home runs of his own to Maris's 61 and Mantle's 54. The card is a high number from Topps' seventh series.
Bob Cerv was born in Weston, Nebraska, in 1925 and grew up in a Bohemian-American community before serving as a Navy radarman aboard the destroyer USS Claxton, which was struck by a kamikaze during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. At the University of Nebraska he became the school's first baseball All-American and the only Husker to earn four letters each in baseball and basketball. The Yankees signed him in 1950, and for most of the decade he shuttled between New York and their Kansas City farm club, unable to beat out Gene Woodling, Irv Noren, or Elston Howard for a starting outfield job despite piling up big minor-league numbers. He won a World Series ring with the Yankees in 1956, then was sold outright to the Kansas City Athletics, where everyday playing time finally let him produce: his 38 home runs in 1958 set the Athletics' club record and earned him an All-Star start over Ted Williams. He returned to the Yankees for stretches from 1960 to 1962, finishing a twelve-year career with 105 home runs. Cerv later coached college baseball at John F. Kennedy College in Wahoo, Nebraska, and managed the semipro Liberal BeeJays to a national championship in 1979; he entered the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021 and died in 2017.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 662 | 0 | 16 | 129 | 205 | 161 | 83 | 67 | 1 |
| SGC | 95 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 20 | 29 | 14 | 4 |
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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #563 card?
It is card #563 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Cerv of the New York Yankees.
Why is #563 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
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.