1961 Topps #56 Russ Kemmerer
About Russ Kemmerer
Card #56 puts Kemmerer in the opening series of the 1961 Topps set, his second summer on the South Side after Washington sold him to Chicago in May 1960. The White Sox barely used him as a starter: 47 appearances, two starts, a 3-3 record and a 4.38 ERA across 96 2/3 innings while the club slid to fourth place. Two of those innings landed in the record books. Kemmerer gave up Roger Maris's 15th home run on June 4 and his 39th on July 25, which makes this quiet first-series card a small piece of the summer Ruth's 60 finally fell.
Russell Paul Kemmerer was a right-handed pitcher from Pittsburgh who spent nine seasons in the majors between 1954 and 1963. A four-sport letterman at Peabody High School, he signed with the Red Sox in June 1950 for a $3,000 bonus after a year at the University of Pittsburgh. He reached Boston in June 1954, and in his first big-league start, on July 18 at Fenway Park, he one-hit the Baltimore Orioles in a 4-0 win. Boston traded him to Washington in April 1957; the equivalent of three seasons in a last-place rotation left him 21-45 there. Washington sold him to the White Sox in May 1960 for a reported $30,000, and Chicago used him first as a swingman and then out of the bullpen before he closed out with the expansion Houston Colt .45s. He called his sinking fastball his best pitch and used a forkball as a changeup, finishing 43-59 with a 4.46 ERA in 302 games and 1,066 2/3 innings. Afterward he pastored small Indiana churches, coached pitchers at Indiana University, and taught English and coached for 21 years at Lawrence Central High School near Indianapolis. He died on December 8, 2014, at 84.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 285 | 3 | 28 | 153 | 64 | 19 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 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: #7 Chicago White Sox Team
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- #185 Herb Score
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- #227 Juan Pizarro
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #56 card?
It is card #56 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Russ Kemmerer of the Chicago White Sox.
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.