1961 Topps #130 Norm Larker
About Norm Larker
The 1961 set carries Larker twice. Card #41, a first-series League Leaders entry, ranks the National League's top four hitters of 1960: Dick Groat at .325, Larker second at .323, then Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. Groat edged him on the final day of the season by two points, the margin of a single hit. Card #130, from the second series, is his own Los Angeles Dodgers card. On the field 1961 was his fourth and last year in Los Angeles. He started 79 games at first base, got into only 97 overall, and watched his average fall 53 points to .270 while the Dodgers cleared room for Ron Fairly and Frank Howard.
Norm Larker was a left-handed hitting, left-handed throwing first baseman who also worked the corner outfield, and he appeared in 667 major league games across six seasons from 1958 through 1963. Born in Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania, a hard-coal mining town, he graduated from Hazleton High School and turned pro with the local Hazleton club before the Brooklyn organization brought him into its farm system in 1950. Gil Hodges blocked him at first base for years, so Larker kept hitting in the minors instead, batting over .300 in three straight American Association seasons at St. Paul before finally sticking with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a 27-year-old rookie in 1958. He started 85 games for the 1959 Dodgers, a team that won the National League pennant in a playoff and then the World Series, and he peaked in 1960, taking over first base from an injured Hodges and batting .323 with 142 hits, 26 doubles and 78 runs batted in. That season brought the only All-Star selection of his career. Houston, Milwaukee and San Francisco followed, and after a year in the minors he closed out his playing days with two seasons for the Toei Flyers in Japan's Pacific League. He died in Long Beach, California, in 2007.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 353 | 0 | 16 | 170 | 121 | 21 | 13 | 12 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 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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Related cards
More Norm Larker in this set: #41 League Leaders
Team card: #86 Los Angeles Dodgers Team
More Los Angeles Dodgers cards:
- #6 Ed Roebuck
- #23 Don Demeter
- #38 Bob Lillis
- #74 Joe Pignatano
- #109 Johnny Podres
- #136 Walt Alston
- #147 Ed Rakow
- #168 Tommy Davis
- #190 Stan Williams
- #207 Dodger Southpaws
- #238 Jim Gilliam
- #260 Don Drysdale
- #280 Frank Howard
- #298 Jim Golden
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #130 card?
It is card #130 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Norm Larker of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.