1961 Topps #550 Frank Baumann
About Frank Baumann
Both of Baumann's cards here look back on 1960, the year everything clicked. Pitching for the defending American League champions after his November 1959 trade from Boston, he went 13-6 and led the league with a 2.67 ERA, with seven complete games and two shutouts among his 20 starts in 47 appearances. That ERA title is why he turns up twice. Card #46, a first-series card, is the League Leaders card he shares with Jim Bunning, Art Ditmar and Hal Brown; Bunning is the Hall of Famer on the card, elected in 1996. His own card, #550, is a high number from the seventh print series, scarce because of when it was printed.
Frank Baumann, born in St. Louis on July 1, 1933, was a left-handed pitcher who became one of the premier bonus babies of the 1950s. He pitched Central High School to three straight Missouri state titles and closed his prep career with a no-hitter, and on June 19, 1952 he signed with the Boston Red Sox for a reported $86,000 - the highest price ever paid for a free agent's signature at the time. Owner Tom Yawkey called him Beau. Army service during the Korean War interrupted his climb, and the arm trouble he picked up in uniform - the result of endless push-ups, not pitching - shadowed the rest of his career. He debuted for Boston on July 31, 1955 with 5 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for the win, but needed return trips to the minors from 1956 through 1958 before spending all of 1959 in the majors. Boston traded him to the Chicago White Sox that November for Ron Jackson, and in 1960 he went 13-6 and led American League pitchers with a 2.67 ERA. He stayed with Chicago through 1964, moved across town to the Cubs, and finished in 1965 at 45-38 with a 4.11 ERA and 384 strikeouts over 797 1/3 innings. He died in St. Louis on December 13, 2020.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 499 | 2 | 53 | 230 | 121 | 51 | 26 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 40 | 0 | 3 | 17 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 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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Related cards
More Frank Baumann in this set: #46 League Leaders
Team card: #7 Chicago White Sox Team
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #30 Nellie Fox
- #56 Russ Kemmerer
- #79 Joe Ginsberg
- #90 Jerry Staley
- #124 J.C. Martin
- #132 Al Lopez
- #152 Earl Torgeson
- #157 Cal McLish
- #170 Al Smith
- #185 Herb Score
- #205 Bill Pierce
- #227 Juan Pizarro
- #247 Billy Goodman
- #271 Jim Landis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #550 card?
It is card #550 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Baumann of the Chicago White Sox.
Why is #550 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
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.