1961 Topps #390 Del Crandall
About Del Crandall
Coming off his last durable season behind the plate - 141 games caught, a career-high 158 hits and a .294 average in 1960 - Crandall lost nearly all of 1961 to a sore throwing arm. He got into only 15 games and batted .200 while 20-year-old Joe Torre caught 113 games, hit .278 and established himself as Milwaukee's catcher of the future. Topps still gave the sidelined veteran two cards. Number 390 is a mid-series Braves card. Number 583 is a high number from the Sporting News All-Star subset.
Delmar Wesley Crandall, born March 5, 1930 in Ontario, California, signed with the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent out of Fullerton Union High School and reached the majors at 19 in 1949, taking over for Bill Salkeld to become the youngest starting catcher in the game's history. After a two-year Army hitch during the Korean War he came back in 1953 to a franchise newly moved to Milwaukee, took the regular job from Walker Cooper and held it eight seasons, building a reputation as the era's best defensive catcher on a rifle arm and quick feet. He led National League catchers in assists six times, fielding percentage four times and putouts three times, was named to eight All-Star teams and played in eleven All-Star Games in the years of two a summer, and won four Gold Gloves. Crandall handled Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette and Bob Buhl through pennants in 1957 and 1958, homering in the deciding Game Seven of both World Series and helping Milwaukee win the 1957 title. A right-handed power hitter for a catcher, he cleared 20 home runs three times and finished in 1966 with 179 homers, 657 runs batted in and a .254 average. Milwaukee elected him to the Braves Hall of Fame in 2003.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 392 | 3 | 35 | 207 | 108 | 25 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 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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Related cards
More Del Crandall in this set: #583 Sporting News All-Stars
Team card: #463b Milwaukee Braves Team
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #29 Don Nottebart
- #61 Ron Piche
- #73 Al Spangler
- #84 Lee Maye
- #89 Billy Martin
- #105 Carl Willey
- #120 Ed Mathews
- #137 Chuck Dressen
- #145 Bob Buhl
- #164 Felix Mantilla
- #183 Andre Rodgers
- #200 Warren Spahn
- #217 Mel Roach
- #245 Joe Adcock
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #390 card?
It is card #390 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Del Crandall of the Milwaukee Braves.
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.