1961 Topps #9 Bob Purkey
About Bob Purkey
Card No. 9 sits near the front of the 1961 Topps set, an ordinary first-series number - Purkey had been in the majors since 1954. The season behind it was 1960: 17-11 with a 3.60 ERA for a Cincinnati club that finished sixth, his second seventeen-win year for the Reds in three tries. He was the steady arm on a team going nowhere, and that winter new general manager Bill DeWitt blew up the roster around him, keeping the hitters over .265 and the pitchers under a 4.00 ERA and clearing out nearly everybody else.
Bob Purkey was a right-handed Pittsburgh native who pitched thirteen big-league seasons, from 1954 through 1966, for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and St. Louis Cardinals. Signed by his hometown Pirates out of South Hills High School, he went 16-29 over four years for second-division Pittsburgh clubs; midway through that run, in 1955, general manager Branch Rickey sent him to the minors and taught him a knuckleball in ten pitches. The pitch made his name, though he insisted he was really a sinker and slider man who lived on control, walking just 2.2 batters per nine innings. A December 1957 trade to Cincinnati for Don Gross remade him: over seven Reds seasons he went 103-76, was picked for five All-Star squads across three summers, and anchored the 1961 pennant winners. His best year was 1962, when he finished 23-5 with a 2.81 ERA, led all major-league pitchers in winning percentage, and placed third in the balloting for the lone Cy Young Award. A sore arm in the spring of 1963 took the rest; he wound up 129-115 with 793 strikeouts and a 3.79 ERA, and Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame in 1974.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 506 | 1 | 69 | 264 | 112 | 31 | 18 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 27 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #9 card?
It is card #9 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bob Purkey of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.