1961 Topps #176 Ken Aspromonte
About Ken Aspromonte
Topps put Aspromonte at #176 in the second series of its 1961 set, an ordinary mid-set number - he had been appearing on Topps cards since the 1950s. The card shows him with the brand-new Los Angeles Angels, and he was there from the first pitch: batting second behind Eddie Yost on April 11, 1961, he went 1-for-4 at Baltimore as the expansion club won its first American League game, 7-2. The bat never came around. Through 66 games he was hitting .223 with 14 RBIs when the Angels waived him and Cleveland, the club he had hit .290 for in 1960, claimed him back on July 3 for $20,000.
Ken Aspromonte, born September 22, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, was a right-handed second baseman who played parts of seven big-league seasons from 1957 to 1963 with the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Braves and Chicago Cubs. Signed by the Red Sox in 1950 out of Brooklyn's Lafayette High School, he spent six years in the minors plus two in the Army before debuting on September 2, 1957, having just won the Pacific Coast League batting title at .334 for the San Francisco Seals. Washington traded him to Cleveland on May 15, 1960 for outfielder Pete Whisenant, and the move made his career: he hit a career-high .290 with 10 home runs, 48 RBIs and 65 runs. Cleveland then left him unprotected in the December 1960 American League expansion draft, and he opened 1961 as the Los Angeles Angels' second baseman. His last big-league game came June 21, 1963 with the Cubs; released the following spring, he played three seasons in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons and Taiyo Whales, batting .273 over 295 games. He later managed the Cleveland Indians from 1972 through 1974, going 220-260. His younger brother Bob Aspromonte played 13 major-league seasons as a third baseman.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 366 | 0 | 27 | 172 | 106 | 38 | 16 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #176 card?
It is card #176 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken Aspromonte of the Los Angeles Angels.
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.