1961 Topps #217 Mel Roach
About Mel Roach
The 1960 line printed here was the last good season of Roach's career: an even .300 with three home runs and 42 hits in 48 games as Charlie Dressen's utilityman, though his repaired knee kept him from winning the second-base job outright. Milwaukee settled that question by acquiring Frank Bolling from Detroit in December 1960, and Roach opened 1961 in a slump, bouncing between second base and left field. On May 9 the Braves traded him straight up to the Chicago Cubs for outfielder Frank Thomas. Card #217 sits in the third series of the 1961 Topps set.
Mel Roach was a Richmond, Virginia infielder and outfielder who spent parts of eight seasons in the majors with the Milwaukee Braves, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. A standout second baseman at the University of Virginia, he signed a large bonus contract with Milwaukee in July 1953, which under the bonus rule of the day forced the Braves to carry him on the big-league roster before he had played a single minor league game. Two years of Navy service delayed him further, and his professional career did not begin in earnest until 1957, when he came up in August and rode the bench for a world champion. He briefly looked like the heir apparent to Red Schoendienst at second base, batting .309 in 44 games in 1958 and .300 in 48 games in 1960. A collision at second base on August 3, 1958 wrecked his left knee, however, costing him the rest of that pennant-winning season and the World Series that followed, and leaving him short of range in the infield. He never recovered his earlier form, closing out his career as a utilityman and retiring after the 1962 season with a .238 average. Roach was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and died in 2023.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 396 | 3 | 56 | 224 | 74 | 19 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 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
Team card: #463b Milwaukee Braves Team
More Milwaukee Braves cards:
- #29 Don Nottebart
- #61 Ron Piche
- #73 Al Spangler
- #84 Lee Maye
- #89 Billy Martin
- #105 Carl Willey
- #120 Ed Mathews
- #137 Chuck Dressen
- #145 Bob Buhl
- #164 Felix Mantilla
- #183 Andre Rodgers
- #200 Warren Spahn
- #245 Joe Adcock
- #261 Charlie Lau
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #217 card?
It is card #217 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mel Roach of the Milwaukee Braves.
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.