1961 Topps #88 Richie Ashburn
About Richie Ashburn
Card #88 sits in the 1961 set's first series - a plain low number - and it is the only Ashburn card in the set. His rookie card is the 1949 Bowman #214. It arrives off his first year in a Cubs uniform, Philadelphia having traded him in January 1960 for three players: 151 games, a .291 average, 99 runs, 40 RBI and 16 stolen bases, with league-leading marks in walks (116) and on-base percentage (.415). Chicago shuffled him around, too - 90 starts in center, 55 in left - and 1960 was the last season he played anything close to a full schedule.
Don Richard Ashburn - Whitey to the minor-league teammates who named him for his light-blond hair - was a slap-and-run leadoff man and center fielder who spent his first twelve big-league seasons (1948-1959) with the Philadelphia Phillies. He debuted as a 21-year-old on Opening Day 1948 and started that summer's All-Star Game as a rookie. A left-handed spray hitter with almost no power, he won National League batting titles in 1955 (.338) and 1958 (.350), earned five All-Star selections, and patrolled center field for the pennant-winning 1950 Whiz Kids, who were swept by the Yankees in that year's World Series. His glove drew as much notice as his bat: he had 400 or more outfield putouts in nine seasons, a record, cleared 500 four times, and still ranks third all-time among center fielders in putouts behind only Willie Mays and Tris Speaker. Philadelphia traded him to the Chicago Cubs in January 1960 for three players; after two seasons at Wrigley Field the expansion New York Mets bought him for their first year. He retired following 1962 with a .308 average, 2,574 hits and 234 steals, then sat in the Phillies broadcast booth from 1963 until his death in 1997. The writers gave him 2.1 percent in 1968, his first year on the ballot; the Veterans Committee elected him in 1995.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · National Baseball Hall of Fame · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,129 | 0 | 57 | 364 | 323 | 182 | 121 | 81 | 1 |
| SGC | 190 | 0 | 2 | 27 | 60 | 40 | 32 | 29 | 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 #88 card?
It is card #88 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Richie Ashburn of the Chicago Cubs.
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.