1961 Topps #211 Bob Gibson
About Bob Gibson
Card #211 in the 1961 set shows Gibson early in his career. The back reports a 3-6 record and a 5.61 earned run average for 1960, a season he spent shuttling between St. Louis and the minors until June. Manager Solly Hemus had told him flatly he would never make the majors, and used him accordingly. Topps had printed his rookie card back in 1959. It is a series-3 issue.
Bob Gibson pitched all seventeen of his major-league seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals, 1959 through 1975, and few pitchers have ever been harder to dig in against. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1935, he starred in basketball at Creighton and spent four months touring with the Harlem Globetrotters before the Cardinals bought his undivided attention. Teammates called him Hoot, a name borrowed from the silent-screen cowboy star Hoot Gibson and kept because he was one, a clubhouse wit with a gift for mimicry. He worked fast, leaned on a vicious slider and two fastballs, and would not fraternize with the men he had to beat. Gibson won twenty games five times, took the Cy Young Award in 1968 and again in 1970, and was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1968, the year his 1.12 earned run average helped push baseball to lower the pitching mound. Across three World Series he went 7-2 with a 1.89 earned run average and was twice named the Series' Most Valuable Player, in 1964 and 1967. He took nine straight Gold Gloves from 1965 through 1973, threw a no-hitter in 1971, and retired with 251 wins and 3,117 strikeouts, at the time second only to Walter Johnson. Cooperstown elected him on the first ballot in 1981. He died in 2020.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 3,427 | 1 | 48 | 521 | 741 | 713 | 556 | 843 | 4 |
| SGC | 1,302 | 0 | 3 | 52 | 178 | 246 | 332 | 471 | 20 |
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: #347 St. Louis Cardinals Team
More St. Louis Cardinals cards:
- #11 Curt Simmons
- #32 Ray Sadecki
- #52 George Crowe
- #64 Alex Grammas
- #75 Lindy Shows Larry
- #91 Walt Moryn
- #118 Chris Cannizzaro
- #127 Ron Kline
- #139 Solly Hemus
- #148 Julian Javier
- #178 Bob Nieman
- #198 Carl Sawatski
- #232 Bill White
- #241 Al Cicotte
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #211 card?
It is card #211 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals.
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.