1961 Topps #454 Pumpsie Green
About Pumpsie Green
Card #454 sits in the sixth print series of the 1961 Topps set. It pictures him with the Boston Red Sox coming off the busiest season of his career: 133 games in 1960, 69 at second base and 41 at shortstop, a .242 average, three home runs and 21 RBIs, plus the starting shortstop job for the final five weeks under returning manager Mike Higgins. He then led the club in hitting through the 1961 exhibition season, opened the year at shortstop, and beat the White Sox 7-6 with an eleventh-inning homer on April 22.
Elijah Jerry Green Jr. was born in Boley, Oklahoma on October 27, 1933 and raised in Richmond, California, where he grew up a fan of the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks. His mother called him Pumpsie early on, and he said he never knew the origin of the name. The switch-hitting infielder signed with the Oaks out of Contra Costa College in 1953, and the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract during the 1955 season. He reached the majors on July 21, 1959, entering at Comiskey Park as a pinch runner to become the first Black player to appear for the Red Sox, the last major league club to integrate; Topps gum customers later voted him the second baseman on the 1959 Major League Rookie All-Star team. Green played second base and shortstop in Boston through 1962, mostly as a semi-regular and pinch runner, then closed his career with the 1963 New York Mets, batting .246 with 13 home runs and 74 RBIs in 344 games. After retiring as a player in 1965 he earned a physical education degree from San Francisco State and spent more than two decades at Berkeley High School in California, coaching baseball and teaching math. He died July 17, 2019 at 85.
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 | 2 | 26 | 170 | 138 | 35 | 12 | 13 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 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: #373 Boston Red Sox Team
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #16 Billy Muffett
- #33 Gary Geiger
- #53 Russ Nixon
- #69 Earl Wilson
- #81 Tracy Stallard
- #99 Don Buddin
- #113 Mike Fornieles
- #128 Rip Repulski
- #173 Beantown Bombers
- #193 Gene Conley
- #210 Pete Runnels
- #221 Mike Higgins
- #236 Don Gile
- #257 Carroll Hardy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #454 card?
It is card #454 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Pumpsie Green of the Boston Red Sox.
Why is #454 harder to find?
It is from the sixth print series (cards 447-522) - noticeably tougher than the first five, easier than the true highs.
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.