1961 Topps #156 Ken Hunt
Two different major leaguers named Ken Hunt turn up in this set. This one is the Angels outfielder; the other is a Cincinnati Reds pitcher, on card #556.
About Ken Hunt
1961 Topps #156 is a second-series card, and it arrives just as the expansion Los Angeles Angels handed Hunt the everyday job New York never had for him. He started in center field in the first game in franchise history, on April 11, 1961, and played 149 games, batting .255 with 29 doubles, 25 home runs and 84 RBI. The short left-field line at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles helped; 17 of those 25 homers came at home. The rough edges showed too, in 120 strikeouts and a league-high 14 outfield errors.
Kenneth Lawrence Hunt, born July 13, 1934, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, was a right-handed-hitting, right-throwing outfielder who grew up a boyhood friend and high-school rival of Roger Maris. Signed by the New York Yankees out of high school in 1952, he hit for average and power at nearly every minor-league stop from Class D to Triple-A, but a crowded New York outfield held him to 31 games in pinstripes across 1959 and 1960. His chance came on December 14, 1960, when the expansion Los Angeles Angels took him with the 40th pick of the expansion draft. Hunt started in center field in the first game in Angels history and hit 25 home runs that summer, a club rookie record that stood until 1993. Shoulder trouble the next spring and the surgery that followed cost him nearly all of 1962, and he was never the same hitter. Los Angeles sold him to the Washington Senators in September 1963. He sat out 1965, spent one last season in the Pacific Coast League in 1966, then retired to the aerospace industry in Southern California. Over six major-league seasons he batted .226 with 33 home runs in 310 games. Hunt died of a heart attack in 1997 at age 62 in Gardena, California.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 323 | 0 | 9 | 110 | 132 | 40 | 21 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 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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Related cards
More Los Angeles Angels cards:
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- #121 Eli Grba
- #163 Ed Sadowski
- #176 Ken Aspromonte
- #184 Steve Bilko
- #195 Jerry Casale
- #209 Ken McBride
- #216 Ted Bowsfield
- #225 Bill Rigney
- #246 Bob Davis
- #263 Ken Hamlin
- #272 Tom Morgan
- #282 Faye Throneberry
- #288 Albie Pearson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #156 card?
It is card #156 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken Hunt 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.