1962 Topps #53 1961 AL Home Run Leaders
On this card: Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Gentile
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
Topps' 1962 American League home run board recaps the sport's most famous home run chase. Roger Maris finished with 61, passing Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 with a shot off Boston's Tracy Stallard on October 1, the final day of the schedule. Teammate Mickey Mantle pushed him all summer and stopped at 54 after an infected hip put him in the hospital in late September. Behind the two Yankees, Harmon Killebrew -- in the Twins' first season in Minnesota -- and Baltimore's Jim Gentile tied for third at 46 apiece. The card belongs to the ten-card League Leaders run at numbers 51 through 60 in Topps' first series.
Roger Maris - the Yankees right fielder who broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record with 61 in 1961, a back-to-back American League MVP and three-time World Series champion in New York and St. Louis. He is not in Cooperstown. Mickey Mantle was the Yankees' switch-hitting center fielder across 18 seasons, a Triple Crown winner, three-time American League Most Valuable Player and seven-time World Series champion who hit 536 home runs on ruined legs. Harmon Killebrew was the Twins' quiet, powerfully built slugger of the 1960s, a six-time American League home run champion who hit more homers in the decade than anyone else and won the 1969 AL Most Valuable Player award. Diamond Jim Gentile lost eight years to the Dodgers' minor leagues before Baltimore handed him first base at 26; he made both All-Star teams three straight years and hit five grand slams in 1961, an American League record.
Sources: Wikipedia (Roger Maris) · Wikipedia (Jim Gentile) · Wikipedia (Harmon Killebrew) · Wikipedia (Mickey Mantle) · SABR BioProject (Roger Maris) · SABR BioProject (Mickey Mantle) · SABR BioProject (Harmon Killebrew) · SABR BioProject (Jim Gentile)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 4,501 | 0 | 29 | 248 | 711 | 930 | 913 | 1,658 | 12 |
| SGC | 1,719 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 123 | 253 | 487 | 803 | 38 |
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 #53 card?
It is card #53 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew and Jim Gentile. 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.