1961 Topps #163 Ed Sadowski
About Ed Sadowski
1961 Topps #163 is a second-series card, and it shows Sadowski with a club playing its very first season. The Angels made him the 11th pick of the December 1960 expansion draft, the first catcher either new team took, but he lost the starting job in camp. He opened the year on the roster, was optioned to Triple-A Dallas-Fort Worth in early May, then was recalled late that month to back up Earl Averill. He caught 56 of his 69 games and hit .232 with four home runs.
Ed Sadowski was a right-handed-hitting catcher from the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh who reached the major leagues in 1960 with the Boston Red Sox. Over five seasons through 1966 he served as a backup for the Red Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta Braves, appearing in 217 games with a .202 batting average, 12 home runs and 39 RBI. Taken by the expansion Angels in the December 1960 draft, he spent three seasons in Los Angeles behind Earl Averill and then Buck Rodgers, then closed out his playing days with the Braves in their first Atlanta season, a run that put him on the field in both the Angels' first season and the Braves' first season in Georgia. He was the last Red Sox player to wear uniform number 8 before it was issued to rookie Carl Yastrzemski in 1961. Sadowski was the oldest of three baseball-playing brothers; Bob and Ted Sadowski both pitched in the majors. Afterward he coached, worked as a roving pitching instructor and managed in the Montreal Expos system, then taught physical education at Catholic schools in Orange County, California, where he died in 1993 at 62 after a long fight with ALS.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 392 | 3 | 35 | 195 | 108 | 33 | 14 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #163 card?
It is card #163 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ed Sadowski of the Los Angeles Angels.
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.