1965 Topps #496 Joe Cunningham
About Joe Cunningham
Cunningham's 1965 card is his first in a Washington uniform. Tommy McCraw took over at first base for the White Sox a few weeks into 1964, and Cunningham was hitting .250 in 40 games when Chicago sent him to the last-place Senators on July 13 for Bill 'Moose' Skowron and Carl Bouldin, with Frank Kreutzer going to Washington later to complete the deal. He hit .214 over 49 games the rest of the way, though he still drew 23 walks in 126 at-bats. Card #496 sits in the sixth series.
Joe Cunningham was a left-handed-hitting first baseman and outfielder who played twelve major-league seasons (1954, 1956-1966) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and Washington Senators. Signed by the Cardinals out of Lodi High School in New Jersey in 1949, he lost two minor-league years to the Army. He bought an outfielder's glove and learned right field in 1957, after Stan Musial had moved back to first base, and broke out in 1959: a .345 average, second in the National League to Hank Aaron, a league-leading .453 on-base percentage, and selection to both All-Star Games played that summer, the only All-Star honors of his career. The press began calling him Smokey Joe in 1958. He finished with 980 hits, 64 home runs, 436 RBI, a .291 average and a .403 on-base percentage that ranks 48th all time among players with at least 3,000 plate appearances. Cunningham later managed Cardinals farm clubs and spent two decades in the team's front office, building its group and season ticket departments and introducing the mascot Fredbird. He entered the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, and died March 25, 2021, at 89.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 423 | 8 | 77 | 220 | 93 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted. The two checklist variations, #79 and #508, are listed under the wording PSA uses for each state.
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Related cards
Team card: #267 Washington Senators
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- #56 Ron Kline
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- #99 Gil Hodges
- #129 Bennie Daniels
- #148 Willie Kirkland
- #152 Phil Ortega
- #181 Senators 1965 Rookie Stars
- #211 Steve Ridzik
- #224 Bob Chance
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- #284 Nick Willhite
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1965 Topps #496 card?
It is card #496 of the 598-card 1965 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Cunningham of the Washington Senators.
How many cards are in the 1965 Topps Baseball set?
598 cards, tracked as 600 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps and no printed-number collisions, and two checklist cards - #79 and #508 - carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball Almanac, 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 2026-10-11.