1961 Topps #291 Tex Clevenger
About Tex Clevenger
Card #291 is a fourth-series card of a franchise playing its first summer, and Clevenger came to the Los Angeles Angels off a 5-11, 4.20 year in the Washington bullpen. He took the field at Fenway Park on April 15, 1961 as the first Angel to wear number 32 in a regular-season game, and the early returns were superb: seven outings before an earned run scored on him, then a 2-1 mark and a 1.69 ERA over 12 games. On May 8 the Angels sent him to New York with Bob Cerv for Ryne Duren, Johnny James and Lee Thomas, so the team named on this card had him for barely a month of the season. His first card is 1958 Topps #31.
Truman Eugene "Tex" Clevenger was a right-handed pitcher from Visalia, California, signed by the Boston Red Sox out of Fresno State in June 1953 and immediately dominant for Class-C San Jose, where he went 16-2 with a 1.51 ERA and led the California League in both wins and earned run average. He reached the majors with Boston in April 1954, then spent five seasons (1956-1960) in the Washington Senators bullpen, leading the American League with 55 appearances in 1958 and throwing a four-hit shutout over Detroit on September 14, 1959. The Los Angeles Angels took him seventh overall in the December 1960 expansion draft, and a trade that May sent him to the New York Yankees, where he was a two-time World Series champion with the 1961 and 1962 clubs without ever pitching in either Series. His nickname came from Boston teammate Johnny Pesky, who thought he resembled former Red Sox pitcher Tex Hughson, though Clevenger never played in Texas. Over eight big-league seasons he went 36-37 with a 4.18 ERA and 361 strikeouts. He later worked as an insurance underwriter in Visalia and ran Clevenger Ford in Porterville with his wife until the mid-1990s. He was inducted into the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987, and he died on August 24, 2019, at 87.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 263 | 0 | 14 | 95 | 100 | 37 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 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 #291 card?
It is card #291 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tex Clevenger of the Los Angeles Angels.
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.