1961 Topps #114 Hobie Landrith
About Hobie Landrith
1961 Topps #114, a second-series card, shows Landrith with the San Francisco Giants. New manager Alvin Dark threw the catching job open that spring, and rookie Tom Haller beat out Landrith, Bob Schmidt and John Orsino for Opening Day. He played three April games and made his debut count, tying a 1-0 game against Pittsburgh with an eleventh-inning homer off Roy Face. Once the Giants traded for Ed Bailey on April 27 he was down to spare duty: 43 games, 71 at-bats, .239. San Francisco left him unprotected that October.
Hobie Landrith was a left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing catcher who spent parts of fourteen big league seasons, from 1950 through 1963, mostly as a second- or third-string receiver. Born in Decatur, Illinois on March 16, 1930, he grew up in Detroit, where his family all but monopolized the catching job at Northwestern High School, and he played a season at Michigan State before Cincinnati signed him. He debuted with the Reds in July 1950 and singled in his first at-bat. Stints with the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals followed, then San Francisco, where 1959 gave him his best year as the Giants' regular catcher. At 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds he was prized less for his bat than for his ceaseless chatter and his handling of pitchers, a habit of constant mound visits he traced to Birdie Tebbetts, his favorite manager in Cincinnati. In October 1961 the expansion New York Mets made him the first player their franchise ever selected, on the reasoning long attributed to Casey Stengel that a club without a catcher spends the day chasing passed balls. He batted .233 with 34 home runs and 203 RBIs in 772 games, coached the Senators in 1964, and died in 2023 at 93.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 347 | 0 | 11 | 106 | 159 | 49 | 14 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #167 San Francisco Giants Team
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #31 Bob Schmidt
- #55 Jim Davenport
- #72 Stu Miller
- #87 Joe Amalfitano
- #96 Billy O'Dell
- #150 Willie Mays
- #161 Sherman Jones
- #188 Jim Marshall
- #203 Eddie Bressoud
- #220 Al Dark
- #237 Billy Loes
- #258 Jack Sanford
- #279 Jose Pagan
- #294 Don Blasingame
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #114 card?
It is card #114 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Hobie Landrith of the San Francisco Giants.
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.