1961 Topps #134 Mickey Vernon
About this card
Cards #131-139 and #219-226 are the manager subset: seventeen skippers in the same portrait layout as the players.
About Mickey Vernon
1961 Topps #134 is a manager card from the set's second series, and it caught Vernon at the start of something brand new: the Senators he is pictured with were an expansion club stocked from the American League's first expansion draft, playing their only season in old Griffith Stadium. They opened on April 10 by losing 4-3 to the White Sox in a Presidential Opener, the first at which John F. Kennedy threw out the first ball, and finished 61-100, tied with Kansas City for last in a ten-team league. Dick Donovan's league-leading earned run average was the one bright spot. By then, Vernon's playing days had ended the previous fall.
James Barton Vernon was called Mickey from about age three, when an aunt in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania borrowed the name from a song the boy played over and over on the family Victrola. Tall, lean and left-handed, he was a first baseman of unusual grace. He spent a year at Villanova, signed first with the St. Louis Browns organization, and became Washington property when Senators super-scout Joe Cambria signed him after the 1937 season. He debuted on July 8, 1939 and lasted 20 big league seasons, losing 1944 and 1945 to the Navy. He won the American League batting title in 1946 at .353, eleven points clear of Ted Williams, then again in 1953 at .337, one point ahead of Al Rosen and enough to deny Rosen the Triple Crown. A seven-time All-Star, he finished with 2,495 hits and a .286 average and held American League career records for first basemen in games, putouts, assists and total chances, plus the major league record for double plays at the position. After stops in Cleveland, Boston and Milwaukee he coached first base for the 1960 champion Pirates, pinch-hit in nine September games to close out his playing days, and took a World Series ring without being eligible to play in the Series itself.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 290 | 0 | 11 | 103 | 116 | 38 | 12 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 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 Washington Senators cards:
- #117 Dale Long
- #129 Ed Hobaugh
- #146 Marty Keough
- #158 Pete Daley
- #174 Ray Semproch
- #187 Billy Klaus
- #206 Gene Green
- #229 Rudy Hernandez
- #239 Dave Sisler
- #259 John Schaive
- #275 Gene Woodling
- #293 Tom Sturdivant
- #318 Danny O'Connell
- #332 Dutch Dotterer
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #134 card?
It is card #134 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Mickey Vernon of the Washington Senators. Cards #131-139 and #219-226 are the manager subset: seventeen skippers in the same portrait layout as the players.
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.