1961 Topps #103 Ruben Amaro
About Ruben Amaro
Amaro's 1961 Topps card, #103, is a series-1 base issue reporting his 1960 season. Called up from the minors that June when Joe Koppe was hurt, he was handed the Philadelphia shortstop job outright for the first time and formed a double-play pair with Cuban second baseman Tony Taylor. The bat lagged badly behind the glove: 92 games, a .231 average, 16 RBI and no home runs.
Ruben Amaro (born Ruben Amaro Mora, January 6, 1936, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico) was a slick-fielding shortstop over eleven big-league seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1958), Philadelphia Phillies (1960-1965), New York Yankees (1966-1968) and California Angels (1969). Traded to Philadelphia for outfielder Chuck Essegian in December 1958, he took over as the Phillies' regular shortstop in 1960. His defense earned the National League's Gold Glove at shortstop in 1964; his bat left him at .234 with eight home runs in 940 games. In Mexico he was called 'Cangurito' after his father Santos Amaro, the Cuban outfielder whose leaping made him 'El Canguro' in the Mexican League. Amaro scouted, coached and managed for decades afterward, taking a World Series ring as Philadelphia's first-base coach in 1980, and in 1986 he and his father became the first father-son pair in the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. His son Ruben Amaro Jr. reached the majors and later ran the Phillies. He died on March 31, 2017.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 274 | 3 | 26 | 125 | 70 | 31 | 9 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 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: #491 Philadelphia Phillies Team
More Philadelphia Phillies cards:
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- #20 Robin Roberts
- #59 Jim Woods
- #78 Lee Walls
- #93 Tony Gonzalez
- #111 Jack Meyer
- #144 Jim Coker
- #154 Bobby Del Greco
- #179 Joe Koppe
- #202 Al Neiger
- #219 Gene Mauch
- #234 Ted Lepcio
- #262 Tony Curry
- #281 Frank Sullivan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #103 card?
It is card #103 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ruben Amaro of the Philadelphia Phillies.
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.