1961 Topps #356 Ryne Duren
About Ryne Duren
Topps placed Duren at #356 in its fourth series for 1961, an ordinary number. The Yankee cap belongs to a strange 1960: he struck out 12.3 men per nine innings, the best rate of his career, and held hitters to a .160 average, yet he also walked nine per nine, lost the closer job to Bobby Shantz in June, and finished 3-4 with a 4.96 ERA as the previous year's injuries lingered. He did work four innings of the seven-game World Series loss to Pittsburgh, giving up a single run.
Rinold George Duren pitched ten major league seasons between 1954 and 1965, a reliever whose thick glasses, poor eyesight and fastball reported at 100 miles an hour left hitters unwilling to dig in. The St. Louis Browns signed him in 1949, and he spent eight years in the minors fighting wildness that at times cost him a walk an inning, until Lefty O'Doul at Vancouver and Ralph Houk at Denver taught him how to pitch. He broke through with the 1958 New York Yankees, anchoring their bullpen with a 2.02 ERA and a share of the American League save lead, then cut his ERA to 1.88 in 1959. He was an All-Star in 1958 and 1959, and once more in 1961 after the Angels acquired him. In the 1958 World Series he saved Game Three and won Game Six, striking out 14 in 9 1/3 innings as New York beat Milwaukee. Alcoholism took the rest: stops with the Angels, Phillies, Reds and Senators ended in August 1965, leaving him 27-44 with a 3.83 ERA, 630 strikeouts and 57 saves. Sober from May 1968, he spent the rest of his life as an addiction counselor and told his story in the book I Can See Clearly Now.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 342 | 0 | 19 | 128 | 118 | 42 | 19 | 16 | 0 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #356 card?
It is card #356 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Ryne Duren of the New York Yankees.
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.