1963 Topps #16 Al Smith
About Al Smith
Card #16 opens the first series with Smith still in a White Sox cap, and that team line was out of date before Opening Day. On January 14, 1963 Chicago sent him and Luis Aparicio to the Baltimore Orioles for Hoyt Wilhelm, Dave Nicholson, Pete Ward and Ron Hansen, a four-for-two that reshaped both clubs. Smith gave the Orioles a solid season in his one year there, playing 120 games, most of them in right field, and batting .272 with 10 home runs and 39 RBIs.
Alphonse Eugene Smith, nicknamed "Fuzzy" as a teenager for being the first of his friends to sprout a beard, was born February 7, 1928 in Kirkwood, Missouri. He signed with the Negro American League's Cleveland Buckeyes in 1946, joined the Cleveland Indians organization in July 1948, and reached the majors on July 10, 1953. Across twelve big-league seasons with the Indians, White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox he played six positions, mostly the outfield corners and third base, and finished with a .272 average and 164 home runs. He was the everyday leadoff man for the 1954 Indians team that won a then-American League record 111 games, and homered on the first pitch of Game Two of that World Series. In 1955 he batted .306, led the league with 123 runs scored, made the first of his two All-Star teams and placed third in the MVP voting. He reached a second World Series with the 1959 White Sox, where a fan's spilled beer in Game Two doused him and produced one of the sport's most reprinted photographs. Smith ran the Chicago park district's baseball program from 1966 through 1981, and was enshrined in the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993. He is not a National Baseball Hall of Fame member. He died January 3, 2002.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 274 | 0 | 21 | 100 | 97 | 36 | 16 | 4 | 0 |
| SGC | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #288 Chicago White Sox
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #6 1962 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #35 John Buzhardt
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #66 Mike Joyce
- #86 Charley Maxwell
- #100 Joe Cunningham
- #118 Sherm Lollar
- #160 Juan Pizarro
- #181 Sammy Esposito
- #223 Eddie Fisher
- #234 Dave Nicholson
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #16 card?
It is card #16 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Al Smith of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.