1961 Topps #579 Willie Mays
About this card
Cards #566-586 and #589 are the 22 Sporting News All-Stars, printed in the scarce seventh series - the toughest run in the set.
About Willie Mays
Mays's 1961 cards carry his 1960 line: a .319 average, 29 home runs, 103 RBI and a fourth straight Gold Glove. Card #41 places him third on the National League batting leaders board, behind Dick Groat and Norm Larker and ahead of Roberto Clemente. His solo issue is #150, a second-series San Francisco card. Card #482 belongs to the retrospective Most Valuable Player subset and honors his 1954 award, so Topps pictures him with the New York Giants he won it for rather than with San Francisco; it falls in the sixth series. Card #579 is his Sporting News All-Star, a high number out of a seventh series long believed to be the scarcest high-number run Topps ever released. His rookie card is the 1951 Bowman.
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (1931-2024), the Say Hey Kid, played 23 major league seasons (1951-1952, 1954-1973), almost all of them in center field for the New York and San Francisco Giants. New York writers hung the nickname on him during his rookie year for the greeting he used in place of hello, though which writer coined it has been argued over ever since. Mays reached the Giants in 1951 out of the Negro American League's Birmingham Black Barons and won Rookie of the Year, then lost most of two seasons to the Army. He returned in 1954 to take the batting title at .345, the National League Most Valuable Player award and a World Series title, a year remembered for his over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's drive in Game One. He moved west with the club in 1958 and stayed a star for another decade and a half: a second MVP in 1965, four home run crowns, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957 through 1968 and 24 All-Star selections. He finished with 660 home runs, third in history when he retired, and 3,293 hits, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 on the first ballot with 94.7 percent of the vote.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac · BaseballCardPedia · CBS Sports
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 1,880 | 3 | 36 | 289 | 383 | 436 | 317 | 414 | 2 |
| SGC | 699 | 0 | 4 | 37 | 78 | 114 | 195 | 255 | 16 |
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 Willie Mays in this set: #41 League Leaders, #150, #482 MVP
Team card: #167 San Francisco Giants Team
More San Francisco Giants cards:
- #31 Bob Schmidt
- #55 Jim Davenport
- #72 Stu Miller
- #87 Joe Amalfitano
- #96 Billy O'Dell
- #114 Hobie Landrith
- #150 Willie Mays
- #161 Sherman Jones
- #188 Jim Marshall
- #203 Eddie Bressoud
- #220 Al Dark
- #237 Billy Loes
- #258 Jack Sanford
- #279 Jose Pagan
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #579 card?
It is card #579 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants. Cards #566-586 and #589 are the 22 Sporting News All-Stars, printed in the scarce seventh series - the toughest run in the set.
Why is #579 harder to find?
It is a high number card (cards 523-589) from the seventh and last print series - the scarce end of the set, including the 22 Sporting News All-Stars.
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.