1961 Topps #388 Bob Clemente
About Bob Clemente
Both 1961 cards look back at 1960, when Clemente hit .314 with 16 home runs and a team-leading 94 runs batted in and Pittsburgh won its first pennant since 1927. He earned his first All-Star selection that summer and batted .310 in the seven-game World Series upset of the Yankees, yet placed only eighth in MVP voting. Card #41 groups him with Dick Groat, Norm Larker and Willie Mays among the league's batting leaders; #388 is his fifth-series portrait.
Roberto Clemente played all eighteen of his major league seasons in right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates, reaching them in the November 1954 Rule 5 draft after the Dodgers left their bonus signing unprotected at Triple-A Montreal. Born August 18, 1934 in Carolina, Puerto Rico, he debuted at twenty and grew into the era's most complete outfielder: four National League batting titles in 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1967, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1961 through 1972 behind a famous throwing arm, and the 1966 Most Valuable Player Award, for which the writers named him on all twenty ballots. He was chosen for fifteen All-Star Games and retired at .317 with 240 home runs and 1,305 runs batted in. Pittsburgh won the 1960 World Series with him, and at thirty-seven he carried the 1971 club past Baltimore, hitting .414 and taking Series MVP honors. His 3,000th hit, a double off Jon Matlack on September 30, 1972, closed his last regular season and made him the eleventh man to reach that mark. On December 31, 1972 a cargo plane he had chartered to fly earthquake relief to Nicaragua went down off the Puerto Rican coast, and his body was never recovered. A special election in 1973 waived the five-year wait and made him the first Latino player enshrined at Cooperstown.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · SABR (1) · SABR (2) · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 6,638 | 2 | 97 | 771 | 1,380 | 1,468 | 1,113 | 1,786 | 21 |
| SGC | 2,747 | 0 | 6 | 86 | 277 | 498 | 678 | 1,155 | 47 |
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 Bob Clemente in this set: #41 League Leaders
Team card: #554 Pittsburgh Pirates Team
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #1 Dick Groat
- #22 Clem Labine
- #54 Earl Francis
- #70 Bill Virdon
- #82 Joe Christopher
- #100 Harvey Haddix
- #126 Dick Stuart
- #138 Danny Murtaugh
- #149 Bob Oldis
- #165 Gino Cimoli
- #181 Fred Green
- #204 Bob Skinner
- #230 Don Hoak
- #242 Hal W. Smith
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #388 card?
It is card #388 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
What are the key cards in the 1961 Topps set?
The #300 Mickey Mantle is the grail of the set. The other major keys are #2 Roger Maris, #150 Willie Mays, #415 Hank Aaron, #344 Sandy Koufax, #388 Bob Clemente (printed "Bob" on the front), #287 Carl Yastrzemski (his second-year card), the #35 Ron Santo, #141 Billy Williams and #417 Juan Marichal rookie cards - all three Hall of Famers - and three more Mantle and Mays cards: #475 Mickey Mantle and #482 Willie Mays from the MVP subset and #578 Mickey Mantle from the Sporting News All-Stars. The 22 Sporting News All-Stars (#566-586 and #589) belong to the scarce seventh and last series (#523-589).
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.