1961 Topps #72 Stu Miller
About Stu Miller
Card #72 is a series-1 base issue, and the back reports a bumpy 1960 for the Giants. A dreadful first half pushed Miller's ERA past 7.00 before he ground it back to 3.90, finishing 7-6 with two saves across 47 games and three spot starts. Those were the last three starts of his career; from 1961 on San Francisco used him purely in relief. Series 1 reached collectors early in the season, so the All-Star balk that July and the Baltimore years both still lay ahead.
Stuart Leonard Miller pitched sixteen major-league seasons (1952-1968) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, New York/San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves, after the Cardinals signed him for a $100 bonus out of a 1949 tryout camp in his hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts. A slightly built right-hander whose fastball topped out in the mid-80s, he built a long career on changing speeds and a jerky, deceptive delivery that wrecked hitters' timing, and the slow curve that floated to the plate earned him the nickname "The Butterfly Man." He led the National League in ERA in 1958 at 2.47, and 1961 was his only All-Star season, one in which he pitched in both of that summer's All-Star Games. The Giants traded him to Baltimore in December 1962, and there he appeared in an American League-record 71 games in 1963 and posted a 1.89 ERA in 1965 that stood as the Orioles mark for a pitcher of 100 or more innings until 2025. He finished 105-103 with 154 saves, third-most in major-league history when he retired, behind Hoyt Wilhelm and Roy Face. Baltimore put him in the Orioles Hall of Fame in 1989. He died January 4, 2015, in Cameron Park, California, at age 87.
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 | 299 | 0 | 29 | 159 | 72 | 24 | 12 | 3 | 0 |
| SGC | 15 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
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: #167 San Francisco Giants Team
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- #96 Billy O'Dell
- #114 Hobie Landrith
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- #161 Sherman Jones
- #188 Jim Marshall
- #203 Eddie Bressoud
- #220 Al Dark
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #72 card?
It is card #72 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Stu Miller of the San Francisco Giants.
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.