1962 Topps #55 1961 AL ERA Leaders
On this card: Dick Donovan, Bill Stafford, Don Mossi, Milt Pappas
About this card
Cards #51-60 are the League Leaders subset, each card listing the 1961 leaders in one statistical category - batting, home runs, ERA, wins and strikeouts - with the American League card first and the National League card second in each pair.
The story on this card
Card 55 in the 1962 Topps set recaps the 1961 American League ERA race. The four men pictured are Dick Donovan, Bill Stafford, Don Mossi and Milt Pappas. Donovan took the crown at 2.40 over 168.2 innings for the expansion Washington Senators, a 61-100 last-place club that drafted him from the White Sox; his own record was just 10-10. Stafford was next at 2.68 across 195 innings, 14-9 for the 109-win Yankees. Mossi followed at 2.96 while working a career-high 240.1 innings and going 15-7 for the 101-win Tigers. Pappas rounded out the four at 3.04 over 177.2 innings, 13-9 for Baltimore. The card sits in Topps' first series for 1962 as part of the League Leaders subset.
Dick Donovan was a wandering right-hander whose Atlanta-taught slider carried him to five All-Star selections, a league-best 2.40 ERA for the 1961 expansion Senators, and a 20-win season for Cleveland in 1962. Bill Stafford - Yankees sinkerballer, the winning pitcher on the day Roger Maris hit his 61st home run and the man who finished Game Three of the 1962 World Series after a line drive caught him on the shin. Don Mossi, a control-artist left-hander who pitched twelve big-league seasons in Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Kansas City, retired with 101 wins, 50 saves and a 3.43 ERA after starting out as half of a shutdown bullpen tandem. Milt Pappas - a Detroit-born control pitcher who reached Baltimore at 18, anchored the Orioles' Kiddie Korps rotation, started the 1965 All-Star Game, and was then traded to Cincinnati for Frank Robinson in one of baseball's most famous deals.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dick Donovan) · Wikipedia (Bill Stafford) · Wikipedia (Don Mossi) · Wikipedia (Milt Pappas) · SABR BioProject (Dick Donovan) · SABR BioProject (Bill Stafford) · SABR BioProject (Don Mossi) · SABR BioProject (Milt Pappas)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 404 | 0 | 17 | 141 | 152 | 52 | 22 | 18 | 2 |
| SGC | 35 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #55 card?
It is card #55 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Dick Donovan, Bill Stafford, Don Mossi and Milt Pappas. Cards #51-60 are the League Leaders subset, each card listing the 1961 leaders in one statistical category - batting, home runs, ERA, wins and strikeouts - with the American League card first and the National League card second in each pair.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.