1961 Topps #330 Rocky Colavito
About Rocky Colavito
Colavito's two 1961 cards both belong to his first year in Detroit. Card #44 is the American League home run leaders entry from the set's ten-card leaders run, a series-one card that places him with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Jim Lemon from the 1960 chase. His own portrait, #330, sits in series four. The scarce run in this set is the seventh series, cards 523 and up. His first Topps card had come out back in 1957. The backs cover a 1960 line of .249 with 35 home runs and 87 RBI, a season he salvaged with 31 homers over the final four months after a slow start cost him playing time.
Rocco Domenico "Rocky" Colavito Jr. grew up in the Bronx idolizing Joe DiMaggio, left high school after his sophomore year for semipro ball, and signed with Cleveland at seventeen for $3,000 after a scout watched him make one throw. He reached the majors in September 1955 and became one of the American League's most feared sluggers, clearing 30 home runs seven times and 40 three times. In 1958 he batted a career-high .303 with 41 homers and led the league in slugging. In 1959 he tied Harmon Killebrew for the AL home run title at 42 and, on June 10 at Baltimore, hit four home runs in a row in one game. Frank Lane's trade of Colavito to Detroit for batting champion Harvey Kuenn on April 17, 1960 outraged Cleveland and later gave Terry Pluto's book The Curse of Rocky Colavito its title. He starred for the Tigers through 1963, spent 1964 in Kansas City, then came home and led the AL with 108 RBI in 1965. He finished in 1968 with the Dodgers and Yankees, even picking up a relief win on the mound for New York, and retired at .266 with 374 home runs and 1,159 RBI. A nine-time All-Star, he joined Cleveland's team Hall of Fame in 2006 and died in 2024 at 91.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 812 | 0 | 20 | 222 | 235 | 172 | 86 | 75 | 2 |
| SGC | 113 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 28 | 26 | 16 | 25 | 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 Rocky Colavito in this set: #44 League Leaders
Team card: #51 Detroit Tigers Team
More Detroit Tigers cards:
- #13 Chuck Cottier
- #14 Don Mossi
- #37 Charlie Maxwell
- #67 Ossie Virgil
- #83 Bob Bruce
- #95 Norm Cash
- #112 Chico Fernandez
- #151 Jim Donohue
- #171 Paul Foytack
- #192 Dick Brown
- #208 Larry Osborne
- #223 Bob Scheffing
- #243 Frank Lary
- #251 Bill Bruton
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #330 card?
It is card #330 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Rocky Colavito of the Detroit Tigers.
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.