1961 Topps #178 Bob Nieman
About Bob Nieman
Nieman opened 1961 as a Cardinals spare, considered for a left-field platoon with 40-year-old Stan Musial, and he was making only his fourth start of the year on May 2 when he pulled a leg muscle. On May 10 St. Louis traded him to Cleveland for Joe Morgan, cash and a player to be named later. He went 8-for-17 in six games as a Cardinal and hit .354 in 39 games as an Indian, mostly off the bench, for a combined .378 with a .427 on-base percentage in 82 at-bats. His 1961 Topps card, #178, pictures him with the Cardinals in the set's second series; his rookie card was a 1955 Bowman.
Bob Nieman was a right-handed-hitting corner outfielder who spent a dozen major league seasons, from 1951 through 1962, with the Browns, Tigers, White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and Giants. He announced himself on September 14, 1951 at Fenway Park, homering off Mickey McDermott in each of his first two big league at-bats; he is one of only three players in major league history to do it. He batted .295 for his career with 125 home runs, 544 RBI and 1,018 hits in 1,113 games, and his best work came for the Browns-Orioles franchise, where he hit .301 across 609 games. He hit .320 in 1956, was voted Most Valuable Oriole and finished seventh in the American League MVP vote, then hit .325 in 1958, yet he was never picked for an All-Star team. Later he was mostly a pinch-hitter, and eight pinch hits helped the 1962 Giants to the pennant; he drew a walk in his only postseason plate appearance. He closed his playing days in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons in 1963, then scouted for nearly two decades for the Indians, Dodgers, Athletics, White Sox and Yankees. He died in 1985 at 58.
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 | 343 | 0 | 16 | 139 | 130 | 46 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #178 card?
It is card #178 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Nieman 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.