1961 Topps #179 Joe Koppe
About Joe Koppe
Card #179 sits in the second series of the 1961 Topps set. It is the last Topps card of the decade to show him in a Philadelphia uniform. He had lost 1960 to a wrist injury that held him to 58 games and a .171 average, a hard drop from the season before, and 1961 gave him nothing to build on: six games, three at-bats, no hits. On May 4 the Phillies packaged him with Turk Farrell and sent him to the Dodgers for Don Demeter and Charley Smith.
Joseph Koppe, born Joseph Kopchia in Detroit, Michigan, on October 19, 1930, was a right-handed-hitting shortstop who spent eight major-league seasons with the Milwaukee Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles/California Angels. He debuted for the Braves on August 9, 1958 and got into 16 games; Milwaukee won the National League pennant that fall, but he never appeared in the World Series. On March 31, 1959 the Braves shipped him to Philadelphia with Gene Conley and Harry Hanebrink for Johnny O'Brien, Ted Kazanski, and Stan Lopata, and he answered with the best year of his life - .261 in 126 games, 18 doubles, seven triples that ranked eighth in the league, seven home runs, 68 runs scored - and a place on the 1959 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. A wrist injury and a burst of transactions moved him out of Philadelphia in 1961 and into an Angels uniform for five seasons, where he played shortstop, second base, and third base. He retired with a .236 average, 19 home runs, and 141 RBI in 578 games, and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on September 27, 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 337 | 1 | 21 | 177 | 90 | 28 | 11 | 9 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 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 #179 card?
It is card #179 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Koppe 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.