1961 Topps #342 Clint Courtney
About Clint Courtney
Card 342 pictures Courtney as a Kansas City Athletic, part of Topps' fourth series for 1961. The uniform barely happened: Kansas City landed him from Baltimore in a January five-for-two trade, then used him exactly once, as a pinch-hitter in the first game of an April doubleheader against the Yankees, before returning him to the Orioles within days. Back in Baltimore he backed up Gus Triandos, hit .267 in 22 games, and played his last big-league game on June 24; on July 1 the Orioles sent the 34-year-old down to Triple-A Rochester, which needed catching help.
Clinton Dawson Courtney, born March 16, 1927 in Hall Summit, Louisiana, was a left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing catcher whose eleven American League seasons were built on hard slides and a short fuse. Drafted into the Army in 1944, he served in Korea, the Philippines and Japan, switching from the outfield to catcher and teaching himself to throw right-handed. The Yankees signed him in 1947; he debuted on September 29, 1951, likely the first big-league catcher ever to work a game in eyeglasses. Traded to the St. Louis Browns that November, he hit .286 as their 1952 starter and was named The Sporting News American League Rookie of the Year, finishing second to Harry Byrd in the writers' vote. A spring-training spill through a railway yard that year left him cut up and bandaged but playing the next day, and the nickname Scrap Iron stuck; so did a brawling feud with Billy Martin. He caught for the Browns as they became the Orioles in 1954, then for the White Sox, Senators and Baltimore again, where in 1960 he was the first catcher to use Paul Richards' oversized knuckleball mitt. A .268 lifetime hitter, he later coached for Houston and managed four Atlanta farm clubs, dying at 48 in 1975 while managing Richmond.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 278 | 0 | 23 | 115 | 90 | 33 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #297 Kansas City Athletics Team
More Kansas City Athletics cards:
- #8 Dick Williams
- #24 Ken Johnson
- #39 Leo Posada
- #57 Marv Throneberry
- #94 Johnny Kucks
- #106 Whitey Herzog
- #119 A's Big Armor
- #143 Russ Snyder
- #177 Don Larsen
- #197 Dick Hall
- #199 Bob Boyd
- #212 Haywood Sullivan
- #224 Joe Gordon
- #248 Ed Keegan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #342 card?
It is card #342 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Clint Courtney of the Kansas City Athletics.
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.