1961 Topps #557 Jose Valdivielso
About Jose Valdivielso
Card 557 sits in the seventh and last series of the 1961 Topps set, a high number and the tougher of his two cards to run down; it catches him with the Minnesota Twins in the franchise's first summer away from Washington. He worked as a utility man that year, 43 games at shortstop, 15 at second base, 14 at third, plus 11 appearances as a pinch runner. When Zoilo Versalles walked away from the club on July 5, Valdivielso took the shortstop job for roughly three weeks and hit .220 while Versalles was gone. He closed the season at .195, 29 hits in 149 at-bats, his only Twins home run coming June 4 off Detroit's Frank Lary.
Jose Valdivielso was a Cuban-born shortstop from Matanzas, found at seventeen by Joe Cambria, the scout who fed Washington a steady pipeline of Latin American talent; his mother signed the professional contract because he was still too young to sign it himself. He broke into pro ball with the Class C Lubbock Hubbers in 1953 and reached Class A Charlotte in 1954, where manager Ellis Clary, unable to pronounce the surname, called him Valdosta after his own Georgia hometown. Valdivielso debuted for the Senators on June 21, 1955, won the Opening Day shortstop job in 1956, then spent two full seasons in the minors before returning to Washington in 1959. In 1960, the franchise's last year in the capital, he was the club's most-used shortstop, and on July 23 he took the back end of the only all-Cuban triple play in major league history, Pedro Ramos to Julio Becquer to Valdivielso. He moved with the team to Minnesota for 1961 and finished out his playing days in the minors through 1964. He later spent decades on Spanish-language broadcasts for the Yankees and Mets. His major league line: 401 games, 213 hits, nine home runs, 85 runs batted in, a .219 average.
Sources: Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 417 | 1 | 25 | 160 | 135 | 51 | 31 | 14 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #542 Minnesota Twins Team
More Minnesota Twins cards:
- #4 Lenny Green
- #21 Zorro Versalles
- #36 Jack Kralick
- #63 Jim Kaat
- #80 Harmon Killebrew
- #92 Hal Naragon
- #108 Dan Dobbek
- #123 Billy Gardner
- #153 Don Lee
- #186 Elmer Valo
- #201 Pete Whisenant
- #226 Harry Lavagetto
- #235 Camilo Pascual
- #254 Ted Sadowski
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #557 card?
It is card #557 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jose Valdivielso of the Minnesota Twins.
Why is #557 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
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.