1961 Topps #340 Vic Wertz
About Vic Wertz
Wertz turned thirty-six in February 1961 and split the Boston first-base job, starting 82 games there and batting .262 with 11 home runs in 99 games around a rib injury that cost him time. On September 8 the Red Sox sold him on waivers to Detroit, the club he had broken in with back in 1947, and he got into eight games with six at-bats down the stretch. Topps carried him twice that year: #173, a second-series card he shares with Boston teammates Jackie Jensen and Frank Malzone, and #340 in the fourth series.
Vic Wertz was a left-handed-hitting outfielder turned first baseman who played seventeen major league seasons from 1947 to 1963, all of them in the American League, with the Detroit Tigers, the St. Louis Browns and Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. Born in York, Pennsylvania and signed by Detroit in 1942 out of Reading High School, he broke out as the Tigers' right fielder in 1949 with 20 home runs and a career-high 133 RBIs, and he made four All-Star teams. Traded from Baltimore to Cleveland in June 1954, he was handed first base and stayed there the rest of his career. He went 8 for 16 in that fall's World Series, yet is remembered for the one he missed: a drive of more than 400 feet in Game One that Willie Mays ran down with his back to the plate. Polio put him in the hospital in August 1955 and ended his season, but he returned in 1956 for a career-high 32 home runs and the Comeback Player of the Year award. He finished with a .277 average, 266 home runs and 1,178 RBIs, built the Vic Wertz Distributing Company in Mount Clemens, Michigan, and was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 373 | 1 | 36 | 198 | 97 | 29 | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 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
More Vic Wertz in this set: #173 Beantown Bombers
Team card: #373 Boston Red Sox Team
More Boston Red Sox cards:
- #16 Billy Muffett
- #33 Gary Geiger
- #53 Russ Nixon
- #69 Earl Wilson
- #81 Tracy Stallard
- #99 Don Buddin
- #113 Mike Fornieles
- #128 Rip Repulski
- #173 Beantown Bombers
- #193 Gene Conley
- #210 Pete Runnels
- #221 Mike Higgins
- #236 Don Gile
- #257 Carroll Hardy
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #340 card?
It is card #340 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Vic Wertz of the Boston Red 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.