1961 Topps #276 Ray Rippelmeyer
About Ray Rippelmeyer
Cincinnati bought his contract in September 1960 without calling him up, after he went 16-13 with a 2.71 ERA for Seattle and made the Pacific Coast League All-Star team. That is how a pitcher with no major league service turned up in a Reds cap on card #276, a third-series card in the 1961 set. Collectors treat it as his recognized rookie card. The season it previewed was spent with the Reds' American Association club in Indianapolis, where a knee injury cost him the first two weeks and he still went 13-8 in 27 starts, then won the Indians' only playoff game.
Raymond Roy Rippelmeyer, known as Bud, was born July 9, 1933, in Valmeyer, Illinois, and grew up doing chores on his father's 2,500-acre farm. A 6-foot-3 right-hander, he was a basketball star first, voted most valuable player by his Southern Illinois teammates in 1953. He signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954 for a $4,000 bonus and moved on to Southeast Missouri State, where NAIA rules let him keep playing basketball. Eleven minor league seasons brought a 114-83 record, with winters in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Cincinnati took him in the November 1959 minor league draft, and his entire major league career came in 1962 with the Washington Senators. As the Phillies' pitching coach from 1970 to 1978 he talked Steve Carlton into leaning on his slider; Carlton won the 1972 Cy Young Award, and Philadelphia took three straight National League East titles from 1976 to 1978. He married Glenda Faye Jones in 1955 and they had four children. He died September 9, 2022, in Waterloo, Illinois, at 89, and is honored in the San Diego Padres minor league Hall of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 394 | 1 | 60 | 210 | 81 | 25 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #276 card?
It is card #276 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ray Rippelmeyer of the Cincinnati Reds.
Is 1961 Topps #276 a rookie card?
Yes - #276 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Ray Rippelmeyer.
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.