The 1960 Topps baseball card set was the ninth series of Topps baseball cards issued. Following another successful year in 1959 that saw Topps produce their largest set to date at 524 cards, Topps went with a smaller checklist of just 402 cards for 1960. The 1960 set is considered a classic among collectors and contains many important rookie cards and stars from what was a pivotal time in Major League Baseball history.
Some of the biggest rookie cards in the 1960 Topps set include future Hall of Famers Ron Santo (#43), Pat Dobson (#169), Tom Seaver (#275), and Johnny Bench (#383). Seaver’s 1960 Topps rookie is one of the most iconic and valuable cards in the hobby. Bench would go on to have a Hall of Fame catching career with the Cincinnati Reds and is widely considered one of the best to ever play the position. Dobson had a solid career as a starter for the Orioles and Red Sox in the 1960s. Santo emerged as a star third baseman for the Chicago Cubs and made several All-Star teams, though injuries plagued his career.
In addition to those coveted rookie cards, the 1960 Topps set featured many of the game’s biggest stars of the era including Hank Aaron (#1), Willie Mays (#3), Roberto Clemente (#20), Sandy Koufax (#59), and Mickey Mantle (#145). Aaron was coming off an MVP season in 1959 and was well on his way to breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record. Mays was in his prime as the center fielder for the dynastic New York/San Francisco Giants teams of the 1950s-60s. Clemente was already establishing himself as perhaps the premier right fielder in baseball for the Pirates.
Koufax was in the early stages of his Hall of Fame career with the Dodgers and was just starting to emerge as one of the game’s most dominant pitchers. And Mantle, though in the latter stages of his career with injuries beginning to take a toll, was still regarded as one of baseball’s most charismatic superstars playing for the perennial World Series contending Yankees. Getting cards of any of those legends in a Mint or Near Mint grade from 1960 is a real trophy for any collector.
An interesting note about the 1960 Topps set is that 16 different players are shown on their original team but were traded prior to the start of the 1960 season. This includes Hank Aaron’s early career with the Milwaukee Braves pictured on his 1956 Topps card despite being traded to the Braves in 1954. Fellow Hall of Famer Robin Roberts is pictured as a Phillie but was dealt to the Baltimore Orioles in December 1959. Other mislabeled cards showed players like Gary Bell (#27), Chuck Essegian (#74), and Ken Hamlin (#248) with their 1959 teams rather than reflecting their new clubs for 1960.
1960 also marked a time of transition in Major League Baseball. The era of legendary owners like the Rickeys, Wrigleys, and MacPhails was coming to an end. New influential owners like Walter O’Malley, who moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, and William Shea, a driving force behind the 1962 expansion, were ushering in big changes. Attendance and revenues were rising annually, television was gaining prominence, and MLB was on the verge of significant expansion over the next decade.
The 1960 season itself saw the powerful Pittsburgh Pirates, led by Starters Vernon Law and Bob Friend and backed by stars like Bill Mazeroski, Willie Stargell, and Dick Groat, defeat the perennially strong New York Yankees 4 games to 3 in the World Series. It was the Pirates’ third Fall Classic title in five years. Offensively, Dick Groat won the National League batting title at .325 and Pete Runnels led the American League at .320.
The 1960 Topps baseball card set provides a wonderful time capsule of the game during this transitional era. With stars of the past like Mays, Clemente, Koufax and Aaron mixing with young talents on the rise like Seaver, Bench and Santo, the 1960 checklist had something for collectors both then and now. Scarcity has driven values of the Topps 1960 commons very high in high grades today. But regardless of condition or price, owning pieces of this classic issue helps connect today’s collectors to the great players and teams who were shaping the future of America’s pastime 60 years ago.
