1961 Topps #37 Charlie Maxwell
About Charlie Maxwell
Topps put Maxwell at number 37 in the first series of its 1961 set, a low-number Detroit Tigers card printed off the strength of his 1960 summer. He played 134 games that year and batted .237 with 24 home runs and 81 runs batted in. Five of those 24 homers came in extra innings, the most any big leaguer had hit in a single season to that point. His glove was steadier than his bat: one error all year in left field and a .996 mark that led every American League outfielder.
Charles Richard "Charlie" Maxwell, a left-handed hitting and throwing outfielder from Lawton, Michigan, played fourteen major league seasons between 1950 and 1964 for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago White Sox. He pitched for Western Michigan College and served two years in the Army before Boston signed him, and a minor league manager moved him to the outfield in 1947, his bat being further along than his control. Stuck behind Ted Williams in Boston, he was sold to Baltimore after the 1954 season, and Detroit bought his contract for the waiver price in May 1955. In Detroit he became an everyday left fielder, an All-Star in 1956 and 1957, a .326 hitter in 1956, and the owner of career bests of 31 home runs and 95 RBIs in 1959; he twice led American League outfielders in fielding percentage. He hit home runs on Sundays at a rate nobody could explain, 40 of his 148 career homers landing on that one day, which made him Sunday Charlie; southwest Michigan knew him as Ol' Paw Paw, after the town he lived in. He finished at .264 with 148 home runs and 532 RBIs, later sold die castings in Kalamazoo, entered the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, and died in 2024 at 97.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 369 | 0 | 38 | 159 | 120 | 33 | 12 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 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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Team card: #51 Detroit Tigers Team
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- #192 Dick Brown
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #37 card?
It is card #37 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Charlie Maxwell of the Detroit Tigers.
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.