1961 Topps #131 Paul Richards
About this card
Cards #131-139 and #219-226 are the manager subset: seventeen skippers in the same portrait layout as the players.
About Paul Richards
This was Richards's last turn managing the Orioles. He resigned in September 1961, the club finishing 95-67 and third, to become general manager of the expansion Houston Colt.45s; the Associated Press and United Press International had both named him American League Manager of the Year for 1960. Card #131, from the set's second series, is his managers subset card. Card #566 is a high number from the seventh series, a Sporting News All-Star card of a manager rather than a player and separate from that managers subset.
Paul Richards was a Waxahachie, Texas, catcher who played eight major league seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, Philadelphia Athletics, and Detroit Tigers, batting .227 with 155 RBI in 523 games. Light with the bat but first-rate behind it, he won a World Series with Detroit in 1945, starting six games of the seven-game set against the Cubs and driving in four runs in the Game 7 clincher. He then became one of the game's most inventive managers, running the Chicago White Sox from 1951 through 1954, the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1961, and the White Sox once more in 1976, finishing 923-901. In Baltimore he doubled as general manager from his 1954 hiring through 1958, the first man since John McGraw to hold both jobs at once; he swung a record 17-player trade with the Yankees and built the club around hard-throwing young pitchers and signed defenders such as Brooks Robinson. He later ran front offices for the Houston Colt .45s/Astros and the Atlanta Braves. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame took him in 1959 and the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame in 1984, but he is not in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Texas State Historical Association
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 349 | 0 | 8 | 122 | 140 | 45 | 21 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 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 Paul Richards in this set: #566 Sporting News All-Stars
Team card: #159 Baltimore Orioles Team
More Baltimore Orioles cards:
- #10 Brooks Robinson
- #26 Wes Stock
- #62 Al Pilarcik
- #71 Jerry Adair
- #85 Jerry Walker
- #102 Gene Stephens
- #125 Steve Barber
- #140 Gus Triandos
- #182 Dave Nicholson
- #218 Hal Brown
- #240 Ron Hansen
- #256 Billy Hoeft
- #277 Hank Foiles
- #295 Milt Pappas
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #131 card?
It is card #131 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Paul Richards of the Baltimore Orioles. 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.