1961 Topps #397 Hal Woodeshick
About Hal Woodeshick
Card No. 397 comes from Topps' fifth series; by then he had already pitched for Detroit, Cleveland and the first Washington club. The Senators on the front are the expansion team that drafted him in December 1960, after the original franchise moved to Minnesota. He caught the second of President Kennedy's ceremonial Opening Day pitches that spring, and Kennedy had to ask an aide how to spell Woodeshick before signing the ball. Washington used him seven times, 3-2 with a 4.02 ERA, then traded him to Detroit in June for Chuck Cottier; a 7.85 ERA there sent him down to Charleston.
Harold Joseph Woodeshick, born August 24, 1932, in Askam, Pennsylvania, in the coal country outside Wilkes-Barre, signed with the Phillies at seventeen and needed a decade to stick. Two Army years as a military policeman and a long minor league apprenticeship slowed him; brief looks with Detroit in 1956 and Cleveland in 1958 led only to two seasons of swing work for the original Washington Senators. Expansion remade the left-hander's career. Drafted by the new Senators in December 1960, traded back to Detroit in June 1961 and sold to Houston that October, he became one of only three players to play two straight seasons for two different expansion teams in their inaugural campaigns. The Colt .45s turned him into their first true closer in 1963, a 1.97 ERA earning his only All-Star selection, and he led the National League with 23 saves in 1964. Traded to St. Louis in 1965, he finished on the 1967 World Series champion Cardinals and retired at 44-62 with 61 saves and a 3.56 ERA. He was nicknamed the Switchman for his knack of turning out the lights on opposing batters, and died in Houston in 2009 at 76.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 450 | 2 | 36 | 233 | 124 | 39 | 14 | 2 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 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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- #174 Ray Semproch
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- #229 Rudy Hernandez
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- #259 John Schaive
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #397 card?
It is card #397 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hal Woodeshick of the Washington Senators.
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.