1963 Topps #559 Danny Murtaugh
About this card
The nineteen manager cards use the same portrait layout as the players. Twenty clubs, nineteen managers: the Cubs were run by their rotating College of Coaches from 1961 to 1965 and have no manager card.
About Danny Murtaugh
Number 559 is a seventh-series high number, one of the 1963 high numbers that turn up least often, and it carries Murtaugh in the managers subset. The picture is cheerier than the year. Pittsburgh collapsed to 74-88 and eighth place, the sorriest finish of his first stretch as manager and a 19-game drop from the club that had won 93 the summer before. He stayed for one more season after this card, then walked away from the dugout with his health as the stated reason.
Danny Murtaugh spent 29 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a player, coach, manager, and front-office man. A native of Chester, Pennsylvania, he broke in as a second baseman with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1941, leading the National League in stolen bases as a rookie. He joined the Army in August 1943 and served in the infantry in Europe. After a 1947 season spent mostly in the minors in the Boston Braves organization, the Braves traded him to Pittsburgh that November, and he played for the Pirates through 1951, his best year coming in 1948 when he hit .290 with 71 runs batted in. He managed New Orleans in the Pirates' farm system, returned to Pittsburgh as a coach, and took over as manager in August 1957 with the club 36-67. He held the job across four separate terms through 1976, winning World Series titles in 1960 and 1971 and two Sporting News Manager of the Year awards. Heart trouble pushed him out of the dugout more than once, but the Pirates kept bringing him back. He suffered a stroke and died in December 1976, about two months after his final retirement; the Pirates retired his number 40 in 1977 and put him in the team's own Hall of Fame in 2022.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 229 | 1 | 5 | 112 | 73 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 19 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 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: #151 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #18 Buc Blasters
- #34 Dick Schofield
- #55 Bill Virdon
- #87 Bob Veale
- #101 Joe Gibbon
- #122 Julio Gotay
- #159 Jim Pagliaroni
- #169 1963 Rookie Stars
- #184 Vern Law
- #215 Bob Skinner
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #239 Harvey Haddix
- #259 Johnny Logan
- #281 Tom Sturdivant
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #559 card?
It is card #559 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Danny Murtaugh of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The nineteen manager cards use the same portrait layout as the players. Twenty clubs, nineteen managers: the Cubs were run by their rotating College of Coaches from 1961 to 1965 and have no manager card.
Why is #559 harder to find?
It is a high number card from the seventh print series, #512-576 - the last and scarcest run in the set. Price guides often band the highs as #523-576, but the printing break falls between #511 and #512.
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.