1961 Topps #556 Ken R. Hunt
Listed as Ken R. Hunt, the Reds pitcher. The plain Ken Hunt at #156 is an unrelated Angels outfielder.
About Ken R. Hunt
Card #556 falls in the seventh and final print series of 1961 Topps - a high number, and his rookie card. The season behind it opened with a relief appearance at St. Louis on April 16 and a first win three days later in San Francisco; on May 23 he held the Dodgers scoreless into the eighth at Crosley Field to beat Don Drysdale 2-0. He worked 29 games, started 22, completed four, and struck out 75 in 136-1/3 innings for a Cincinnati club that took the pennant, then pitched the ninth inning of Game Five of the World Series - a walk to Roger Maris, a strikeout of Elston Howard. Topps prints him here as Ken R. Hunt; the plain Ken Hunt at #156 is an unrelated Angels outfielder.
Kenneth Raymond Hunt Jr., a right-handed pitcher from Ogden, Utah, signed with Cincinnati in 1958 for a reported $35,000 bonus after an all-state prep career at Ogden High School and a single year at Brigham Young University. Wildness nearly buried him: he walked 75 in 54 innings at Class C Visalia in 1958 and 185 in 150 innings there in 1959, before a breakout 1960 at Class A Columbia, where he went 16-6 and led the South Atlantic League with 221 strikeouts. He won a spot in the Reds' rotation out of spring training in 1961 and was, for a stretch that summer, named alongside Sandy Koufax as one of the two best young pitchers in the National League; he finished 9-10 with a 3.96 ERA, took The Sporting News NL Rookie Pitcher of the Year award, and worked one inning of the World Series. Control trouble and a sore shoulder undid him, and he never pitched in the majors again, leaving pro baseball after 1965. He taught English and coached baseball and basketball at Morgan High School in Utah until 2003, entered the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and died in 2008.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 478 | 0 | 24 | 209 | 143 | 61 | 22 | 17 | 2 |
| SGC | 41 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 9 | 8 | 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: #249 Cincinnati Reds Team
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- #76 Harry Anderson
- #97 Jerry Lynch
- #110 Vada Pinson
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- #162 Jay Hook
- #166 Danny Kravitz
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- #194 Gordy Coleman
- #215 Gus Bell
- #233 Joe Jay
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #556 card?
It is card #556 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ken R. Hunt of the Cincinnati Reds.
Is 1961 Topps #556 a rookie card?
Yes - #556 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Ken R. Hunt.
Why is #556 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.