1963 Topps #155 Bill Stafford
About Bill Stafford
The papers came into 1963 calling him the Cool Cookie from the Catskills. Then April 10 in Kansas City: frigid weather, a 3-0 shutout of the Athletics going in the seventh, and a 1-and-2 fastball to Billy Bryan that brought a snap in his right shoulder. The team doctor found nothing serious; the rotator cuff injury went undiagnosed, and the year fell apart into 4-8 and a 6.02 earned run average over 28 games. The Yankees won the pennant again and were swept by the Dodgers without him. Number 155 is his own card, from the second series. Number 331, a fourth-series combination card titled Series Foes, pairs him with Billy Pierce of the San Francisco Giants, the man he outpitched in Game Three the previous October.
Bill Stafford was a right-handed sinkerballer who spent six of his eight big-league seasons with the New York Yankees. The Yankees signed him out of Coxsackie-Athens High School in upstate New York for $4,000 in June 1957, and he debuted at Fenway Park on August 17, 1960, in the middle of a three-team pennant race. He grew into the number three starter behind Whitey Ford and Ralph Terry, and in 1961 he finished 14-9 with a 2.68 earned run average, second in the American League. Then came April 10, 1963, and a sharp pain in his right shoulder that the club called minor; it was an undiagnosed rotator cuff injury, and he was never the same. He pitched on in New York through 1965, went to the Kansas City Athletics in a June 1966 trade, and threw his last major league pitch in September 1967. His record was 43-40 with a 3.52 ERA over 186 games, and he belonged to five Yankee pennant winners and two world champions. He worked afterward in sales, coached at a Connecticut college and at the high school level, and settled in Michigan, where he died of a heart attack in September 2001 at 63.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 289 | 0 | 4 | 71 | 123 | 76 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 23 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 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.
Find this card
Search T206 Cards Live auctions Buy It Now on eBay Sold prices
As an eBay Partner Network affiliate, T206Cards.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
Related cards
More Bill Stafford in this set: #331 Combo
Team card: #247 New York Yankees
More New York Yankees cards:
- #2 1962 American League Batting Leaders
- #4 1962 American League Home Run Leaders
- #6 1962 American League E.R.A. Leaders
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #10 1962 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #20 Tony Kubek
- #38 Bud Daley
- #42 Stan Williams
- #54 1963 Rookie Stars
- #60 Elston Howard
- #92 Hector Lopez
- #120 Roger Maris
- #142 World Series Game #1 - Yanks' Ford Wins Series Opener
- #144 World Series Game #3 - Maris Sparks Yankee Rally
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #155 card?
It is card #155 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Stafford of the New York Yankees.
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.