1961 Topps #281 Frank Sullivan
About Frank Sullivan
Topps put Sullivan at #281 in the third series of its 1961 set, his first card in a Phillies uniform after eight seasons in Boston. It is a plain mid-set number. What it captures is the worst year he ever had: 3-16 for a club that lost 107 games and dropped 23 straight from late July into August, the longest skid in the majors since 1900. He took three of those 23 losses himself. Six saves still led the Philadelphia staff. "We were terrible," he said later, pointing out that Robin Roberts, a Hall of Famer, went 1-10 on the same team.
Frank Sullivan, born Franklin Leal Sullivan on January 23, 1930, in Hollywood, California, grew up in nearby Burbank, where he starred in baseball and basketball at Burbank High. Baseball writers called him the Boston Skyscraper: he was one of the tallest pitchers of his era, and he said the height was a big advantage because he usually came in sidearm. Signed by the Red Sox in 1948, he lost two years to Army service in the Korean War, including four and a half months on the front line that earned him the Combat Infantryman Badge. He reached Boston in July 1953 and became the staff workhorse, winning in double figures five straight seasons from 1954 through 1958 and making the American League All-Star team in 1955 and 1956. His best year was 1955, when he tied for the league lead with 18 wins and topped it in innings pitched and games started. Boston traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for Gene Conley in December 1960, and he closed an eleven-season career in relief with the Minnesota Twins in 1963, finishing 97-100 with a 3.60 ERA and 959 strikeouts. He settled on Kauai, was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008, and died in Lihue, Hawaii, in January 2016.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 233 | 0 | 25 | 107 | 66 | 22 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #281 card?
It is card #281 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Frank Sullivan of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.