1961 Topps #377 Ruben Gomez
About Ruben Gomez
Series five of the 1961 set reached shelves with Gomez at the low point of his time in the majors. A knee injury early in 1959 cut him to 3-8 with a 6.10 ERA in his first Phillies season, and 1960 brought an 0-3 mark in 52 1/3 innings before Philadelphia sent him down to Buffalo that June. He spent 1961 in the minors, still Buffalo property, so card 377 pictures a Phillies pitcher who threw no big league innings that summer. Winter ball never stopped, though: he was a Santurce mainstay again for manager Luis Olmo. Buffalo sold him to Jacksonville after the season, and an 8-0 start there in 1962 earned a June recall from Cleveland.
Ruben Gomez Colon (1927-2004) was a Puerto Rican right-hander from Arroyo who debuted with the New York Giants in 1953 and went 13-11 as a rookie. In 1954 he went 17-9 with a 2.88 ERA, then started and won Game 3 of the World Series at Cleveland, the first Puerto Rican pitcher to start and win a Series game, as the Giants swept the 111-win Indians. He was 15-13 for the 1957 Giants, and on April 15, 1958 he won the first Major League game played on the West Coast, an 8-0 shutout of the Dodgers at Seals Stadium that beat future Hall of Famer Don Drysdale. Traded to the Phillies for Jack Sanford after that season, he faded quickly, spent 1961 in the minors and went 2-3 in a 1962 return split between Cleveland and Minnesota. He finished 76-86 with a 4.09 ERA over ten big league seasons. At home he pitched 28 winter seasons between 1947 and 1977, mostly for the Santurce Cangrejeros, setting league marks for wins (174), innings and games pitched (417). Nicknamed El Divino Loco, he entered the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 366 | 0 | 27 | 179 | 108 | 41 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #377 card?
It is card #377 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ruben Gomez 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.