1961 Topps #15 Willie Kirkland
About Willie Kirkland
Card 15 lands in the first series of Topps' 1961 set, and it shows Kirkland in his first year as a Cleveland Indian after the Giants shipped him and pitcher Johnny Antonelli east for outfielder Harvey Kuenn on December 3, 1960. He seized the starting right-field job and set career highs in games (146), hits (136), home runs (27) and runs batted in (95) while batting .259, leading the Indians in both homers and RBI. The signature day came July 9 against the Chicago White Sox, when he hit three home runs off right-hander Cal McLish, then dropped down a successful bunt in the ninth after manager Jimmy Dykes asked for one with the game on the line.
Willie Charles Kirkland, nicknamed Boom Boom, was born February 17, 1934, in Siluria, Alabama, and raised in Detroit. A right fielder and a powerful left-handed hitter, he signed with the New York Giants out of Northwestern High School and piled up home runs in the minors before losing all of 1957 to military service. He broke in with the transplanted San Francisco Giants in 1958, batting cleanup behind Willie Mays in the club's first official West Coast game and collecting a single and an RBI in an 8-0 win over the Dodgers at Seals Stadium on April 15. He held the Giants' regular right-field job through 1960, and then a trade sent him to Cleveland, where he had his best big-league season in 1961. Over nine major-league seasons with the Giants, Indians, Orioles and Senators he batted .240 with 837 hits, 148 home runs and 509 RBI in 1,149 games. His playing days ran longer than that: after a 34-homer year for the Pacific Coast League's Hawaii Islanders in 1967, he spent six seasons with Japan's Hanshin Tigers, adding 126 more home runs across a 20-year professional career.
Sources: Wikipedia · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2) · Retrosheet
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 225 | 1 | 22 | 103 | 55 | 27 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 14 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 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: #467 Cleveland Indians Team
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #5 Johnny Romano
- #18 Jim Grant
- #34 Wynn Hawkins
- #60 Woodie Held
- #77 Dick Stigman
- #101 Bubba Phillips
- #115 Johnny Antonelli
- #155 Johnny Temple
- #172 Don Dillard
- #191 Mike de la Hoz
- #222 Jimmie Dykes
- #255 Vic Power
- #274 Gary Bell
- #319 Valmy Thomas
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #15 card?
It is card #15 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie Kirkland of the Cleveland Indians.
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.