1961 Topps #81 Tracy Stallard
About Tracy Stallard
Card 81 lands in Topps' opening series and catches Stallard in his first full season in the majors. Boston used him in 43 games, 14 of them starts, and he finished 2-7 with a 4.88 ERA over 132 2/3 innings for a sixth-place club. Everything about the year funnels into the last day of it. Facing the Yankees on October 1, he held them to five hits over seven innings and struck out five, but Roger Maris turned on a fourth-inning fastball for number 61, and that solo shot was the only run of a 1-0 loss. Collectors know card 81 as his rookie card.
Evan Tracy Stallard was a 6-foot-5 right-handed pitcher born August 31, 1937, in Coeburn, Virginia, where he went unbeaten across four years of high school ball before the Boston Red Sox signed him in 1956. Five minor league seasons followed, and he finally stuck with Boston in 1961. Over parts of seven major league seasons with the Red Sox, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals he went 30-57 with a 4.17 ERA and 477 strikeouts in 764 2/3 innings, pitching his last game in July 1966. One pitch outlived all of it: on October 1, 1961, Roger Maris drove him over the wall for the 61st home run that passed Babe Ruth. Stallard made his peace with it, saying he was glad Maris did it off him, because otherwise he would never have been thought of again. He later ran a coal business back in Virginia, saw Coeburn High School name its new field for him in 1997, and entered the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame in 2005; Cooperstown never called. He died December 6, 2017, in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 377 | 3 | 44 | 187 | 94 | 22 | 10 | 17 | 0 |
| SGC | 24 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #81 card?
It is card #81 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox.
Is 1961 Topps #81 a rookie card?
Yes - #81 is the 1961 Topps rookie card of Tracy Stallard.
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.