1961 Topps #94 Johnny Kucks
About Johnny Kucks
Card #94 is a first-series number from 1961, and it shows Kucks in a Kansas City uniform - a picture already out of date when the pack was opened. His 1960 had been a wreck: 4-10 with a 6.00 ERA, one complete game, and 22 home runs surrendered in 114 innings as the sinker that made his name stopped sinking. His final big-league appearance came that September against Detroit. For 1961 he was optioned to Rochester of the International League, where he went 10-14, and he never pitched in the majors again. It is a plain low-series issue.
Johnny Kucks was a right-handed sinkerball pitcher, born in Hoboken and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he pitched at William L. Dickinson High School before signing with the New York Yankees in 1952. He won 20 games for Class B Norfolk that summer, spent 1953 and 1954 in the Army, then jumped straight to the Yankees out of spring training in 1955 and went 8-7 as a rookie. His big year was 1956: 18-9 with 12 complete games and three shutouts, plus a place on the American League All-Star team, though he never got into the game. That October he shut out the Brooklyn Dodgers 9-0 at Ebbets Field in Game Seven of the World Series to clinch the title, his sinker producing ground ball after ground ball, and struck out Jackie Robinson to end it. A second ring followed in 1958. In May 1959 the Yankees traded him, Tom Sturdivant and Jerry Lumpe to the Kansas City Athletics for Ralph Terry and Hector Lopez. His sinker flattened in 1960 and that season ended his major-league career at 54-56 with a 4.10 ERA, though he pitched on in the minors into 1963. He later worked as a stockbroker in New Jersey and entered the Hudson County Hall of Fame in 1992. He died in 2013 at 81.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Stats Crew
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 414 | 4 | 55 | 239 | 88 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 29 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #297 Kansas City Athletics Team
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- #57 Marv Throneberry
- #106 Whitey Herzog
- #119 A's Big Armor
- #143 Russ Snyder
- #177 Don Larsen
- #197 Dick Hall
- #199 Bob Boyd
- #212 Haywood Sullivan
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #94 card?
It is card #94 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Johnny Kucks of the Kansas City Athletics.
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.