1961 Topps #304 Rocky Nelson
About Rocky Nelson
Card 304 in the 1961 Topps set's fourth print series shows Nelson with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the club he had rejoined in 1959 after years of bouncing between organizations. He first reached the majors with the Cardinals in 1949. Nelson came to it off seasons of .291 and .300 platooning at first base with Dick Stuart, and off a championship: his two-run homer off Bob Turley opened the scoring in the first inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. The season this card sat in packs for was his last, a .197 mark in 75 games.
Glenn Richard Nelson, born November 18, 1924 in Portsmouth, Ohio, was a left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing first baseman who played parts of nine major league seasons between 1949 and 1961 for the Cardinals, Pirates, White Sox, Dodgers and Indians. Signed by the Cardinals in 1942, he lost three years to Army service in World War II. Teammate Whitey Kurowski hung the name Rocky on him at a Cardinals training camp after bouncing a ball off his head during a pepper game. Nelson never stuck in the majors for long, but he was one of the most feared hitters in the International League, taking the circuit's MVP award three times and winning two minor league Triple Crowns, with Montreal in 1955 and Toronto in 1958; the league put him in its Hall of Fame in 1960, while he was still active. He became a full-season major leaguer with Pittsburgh in 1959 at age 34, platooning at first base with right-handed Dick Stuart, and he was on the Pirates' 1960 World Series championship club, batting .333 in four Series games. Nelson finished with a .249 major league average and 31 home runs, played one more minor league season in 1962, and was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. He died in his hometown of Portsmouth on October 31, 2006.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 320 | 1 | 26 | 155 | 99 | 25 | 9 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 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
Team card: #554 Pittsburgh Pirates Team
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #1 Dick Groat
- #22 Clem Labine
- #54 Earl Francis
- #70 Bill Virdon
- #82 Joe Christopher
- #100 Harvey Haddix
- #126 Dick Stuart
- #138 Danny Murtaugh
- #149 Bob Oldis
- #165 Gino Cimoli
- #181 Fred Green
- #204 Bob Skinner
- #230 Don Hoak
- #242 Hal W. Smith
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #304 card?
It is card #304 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Rocky Nelson of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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.