1961 Topps #323 Sammy Esposito
About Sammy Esposito
The 1961 season brought Esposito his most at-bats since 1957: 94 of them across 63 games, including a dozen starts at shortstop spelling Luis Aparicio, seven at second base for Nellie Fox and five more at third. The bat lagged well behind the glove - 16 hits, five of them doubles, one home run, eight runs batted in and a .170 average - and he was sent in as a pinch-runner a dozen times. Card 323 shows him with Chicago and comes from the fourth print series, a mid-numbered card.
Sammy Esposito was a utility infielder who spent parts of ten major league seasons (1952, 1955-1963) with the Chicago White Sox and, at the very end, the Kansas City Athletics. A three-sport star at Chicago's Fenger High School, he signed with the White Sox in August 1952 and debuted that September as the youngest player in the majors, then spent 1953 in the minors before an Army hitch kept him away until 1955. Third base was his main post, with regular work at shortstop and second, and he spent his prime as the reserve behind Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox, valued for his glove and his patience far more than his bat: .207 with 8 home runs and 73 RBI in 560 games, but a .330 on-base percentage. His signature year was 1959, when the White Sox won the American League pennant and he appeared in two games of the World Series the Dodgers took in six. He then coached North Carolina State for 21 seasons (1967-1987), going 513-253-4 with ACC titles in 1968, 1973, 1974 and 1975, and was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 365 | 0 | 8 | 194 | 108 | 35 | 13 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 21 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 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
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #30 Nellie Fox
- #56 Russ Kemmerer
- #79 Joe Ginsberg
- #90 Jerry Staley
- #124 J.C. Martin
- #132 Al Lopez
- #152 Earl Torgeson
- #157 Cal McLish
- #170 Al Smith
- #185 Herb Score
- #205 Bill Pierce
- #227 Juan Pizarro
- #247 Billy Goodman
- #271 Jim Landis
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #323 card?
It is card #323 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Sammy Esposito 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.