1961 Topps #61 Ron Piche
About Ron Piche
Piche's first Topps card, #61, sits in the first series of the 1961 set and is his recognised rookie card. It followed a 1960 rookie year spent entirely in relief for the Milwaukee Braves: 37 games without a start, 27 of them finished, nine saves and a 3-5 record with a 3.56 ERA. The 1961 season itself was quieter work out of the same bullpen, 12 appearances and a 2-2 mark with a 3.47 ERA in 23 1/3 innings, though the single game he did start that year he finished himself.
Ronald Jacques Piche, born May 22, 1935 in Verdun, Quebec, was a right-handed pitcher who worked mostly in relief across parts of six major league seasons between 1960 and 1966. He pitched for the Milwaukee Braves, the Los Angeles Angels and the St. Louis Cardinals, appearing in 134 games, only 11 of them starts, with a 10-16 record, 12 saves, 157 strikeouts and a 4.19 ERA over 221 1/3 innings. His only full major league season came in 1963, when he worked 37 games almost entirely out of the Braves bullpen. Signed by Milwaukee as an amateur free agent in 1955, he pitched 17 professional seasons and went 130-65 with a 2.96 ERA in 500 minor league games. He then spent years with the Montreal Expos as a minor league coach, a ticket-office administrator, the club's bullpen coach in 1976 and its director of Canadian scouting from 1977 to 1985; later public relations work there earned him the nickname Monsieur Baseball. He entered the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988 and died February 3, 2011 at age 75.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · Canada's Baseball Hall of Fame
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 334 | 1 | 46 | 164 | 74 | 32 | 9 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 10 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 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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Related cards
Team card: #463b Milwaukee Braves Team
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- #89 Billy Martin
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- #120 Ed Mathews
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- #145 Bob Buhl
- #164 Felix Mantilla
- #183 Andre Rodgers
- #200 Warren Spahn
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #61 card?
It is card #61 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ron Piche of the Milwaukee Braves.
Is 1961 Topps #61 a rookie card?
Yes - #61 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Ron Piche.
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.