1961 Topps #547 Leon Wagner
About Leon Wagner
The Angels landed Wagner on April 13, 1961, trading Lou Johnson to Toronto of the International League, where the Cardinals had parked him the previous October. Neither expansion club had taken him in the draft that stocked them, yet at 27 he finally had an everyday job. He led the brand-new franchise with 28 home runs, added 79 RBIs and a .280 average in 133 games, and led its outfielders in assists under Bill Rigney, his old San Francisco manager. His 1961 Topps card, #547, belongs to the seventh series, a true high number. He had already debuted with the Giants three years earlier.
Leon Lamar Wagner (May 13, 1934 - January 3, 2004) was a left-handed-hitting outfielder who played twelve major-league seasons between 1958 and 1969 for the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Angels, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox. New York Giants scout Ray Lucas signed him off a Michigan sandlot team in 1954, and he punished minor-league pitching - 51 home runs in the Carolina League in 1956 - while committing enough outfield errors to worry every manager he had. Blocked in San Francisco and St. Louis, he finally got a regular job with the expansion Angels in 1961 and became their first real slugger, peaking in 1962 with 37 home runs, 107 RBIs, a fourth-place MVP finish, and the All-Star Game MVP award, the first American Leaguer to win it. The press tagged him 'Daddy Wags' for the loose, below-the-waist wiggle he went through in the batter's box. Traded to Cleveland after the 1963 season, he anchored the Indians' outfield for three productive years, then slid into a platoon and pinch-hitting role as he turned 33. He finished at .272 with 211 home runs and 669 RBIs, and later sold cars and did public-relations work before his death in Los Angeles in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 412 | 3 | 44 | 147 | 108 | 59 | 35 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 29 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 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 #547 card?
It is card #547 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Leon Wagner of the Los Angeles Angels.
Why is #547 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.