1961 Topps #483 Don Newcombe
Newcombe is pictured with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the club he won the 1956 National League MVP award with, as part of the set's MVP subset.
About this card
Cards #471-486 are the Most Valuable Players subset - sixteen tributes to past MVP winners, American League #471-478 and National League #479-486, each printed with the franchise of the MVP season.
About Don Newcombe
Newcombe turns up here in the 1961 Topps MVP subset, a run of cards revisiting past league Most Valuable Players rather than current-season form. Card #483 honors his 1956 award, the year he went 27-7 and also carried off the first Cy Young Award ever given, so Topps lists him with the Brooklyn Dodgers even though the franchise had been in Los Angeles for three seasons by the time this set was printed. The card comes out of the sixth print series, which makes #483 scarcer than the early runs.
Don Newcombe was a 6-foot-4 right-hander who broke in with the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League in 1944 and reached Brooklyn on May 20, 1949, the third black pitcher to appear in a major-league game after Dan Bankhead and Satchel Paige. Big Newk won 17 games as a rookie, led the National League in shutouts, took NL Rookie of the Year honors, and that October became the first black pitcher to start a World Series game. He won 19 in 1950 and 20 in 1951, when he also led the league in strikeouts, then lost 1952 and 1953 to military service. He returned to go 20-5 in 1955, the year the Dodgers won the only World Series title they ever claimed in Brooklyn. His masterpiece was 1956: 27-7 with a 3.06 ERA, the National League MVP award, and the first Cy Young Award ever given. He was the only man to hold Rookie of the Year, MVP, and Cy Young until Justin Verlander matched it in 2011. A four-time All-Star, he could also hit, batting .271 with 15 home runs. Traded to Cincinnati in June 1958, he closed out in Cleveland in 1960 and played a last season in Japan.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 701 | 0 | 42 | 257 | 205 | 110 | 45 | 42 | 0 |
| SGC | 82 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 22 | 17 | 12 | 16 | 1 |
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 #483 card?
It is card #483 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Cards #471-486 are the Most Valuable Players subset - sixteen tributes to past MVP winners, American League #471-478 and National League #479-486, each printed with the franchise of the MVP season.
Why is #483 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.