1961 Topps #453 Dick Schofield
About Dick Schofield
Groat went down on September 6, 1960, his wrist broken by a Lew Burdette pitch, and Schofield, mired in an 0-for-18 slump, answered with three hits that afternoon in a 5-3 win. He never sat again, going 27-for-67 the rest of the way with two or more hits in eight games, and played every inning of three straight doubleheaders as Pittsburgh swept all six and locked up its first pennant since 1927. A healed Groat took the job back for the World Series, leaving Schofield three pinch-hit trips in Yankee blowouts, one a single in Game Two. Card #453 is a sixth-series card in the 1961 set.
John Richard "Ducky" Schofield built a 19-year major-league career as a switch-hitting infielder, breaking in with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953 as an 18-year-old bonus baby - the first the franchise ever signed - before a June 1958 trade sent him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Gene Freese and Johnny O'Brien. Blocked for years by shortstop Dick Groat, he became a Pittsburgh favorite in September 1960, hitting .403 after Groat's wrist was broken, though a healed Groat took the job back for the World Series that Pittsburgh went on to win. Once Groat was traded to St. Louis, Schofield finally opened at shortstop three straight years, 1963 through 1965, then moved on to the Giants, Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals, Red Sox and Brewers as a utility man valued far more for his glove than for a .227 bat. He took his nickname from his father, a minor-league shortstop also called Ducky. Springfield, Illinois put three generations in at once, inducting Schofield, his father and his daughter Kim into its Sports Hall of Fame in 1991; he is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 438 | 3 | 44 | 202 | 137 | 32 | 13 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 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: #554 Pittsburgh Pirates Team
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #1 Dick Groat
- #22 Clem Labine
- #54 Earl Francis
- #70 Bill Virdon
- #82 Joe Christopher
- #100 Harvey Haddix
- #126 Dick Stuart
- #138 Danny Murtaugh
- #149 Bob Oldis
- #165 Gino Cimoli
- #181 Fred Green
- #204 Bob Skinner
- #230 Don Hoak
- #242 Hal W. Smith
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #453 card?
It is card #453 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dick Schofield of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Why is #453 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 447-522) - noticeably tougher than the first five, easier than the true highs.
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.