The arrival of the 1958 Topps Baseball set marked the beginning of a new era in sports, not just baseball, as it documented on cardboard the arrival of the West Coast on the American sports scene.
As you know by now, I’m a love of sports history – and sports card history, as well as someone who has doing research on the best baseball rookie cards from every year, and every Topps baseball set, including these 1958 Topps Baseball cards.
On May 27, 1957, Major League Baseball owners unanimously voted to allow both the Brooklyn Dodgers and N.Y. Giants to move to California.
The Dodgers left Brooklyn after the 1957 season, where they had played baseball since 1884 (becoming known as the Dodgers in 1911, to Los Angeles. They joined the Giants to become the first two West Coast teams from a major sport, and began the shift of many east coast teams westward.
The 1958 Topps Baseball set showed these Dodgers and Giants in their new hats and jerseys displaying their new locations. The card fronts announced these players now played for the “L.A. DODGERS” and the “SAN FRAN. GIANTS.”
Interestingly, Jackie Robinson, who hailed from Southern California, after he became a star baseball and football player for UCLA, would never play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers. His final MLB season was in 1956, with the Dodgers trading him to the Giants in the offseason. Robinson chose to retire rather than play for his former arch-rivals, and both teams would move
There are several reasons why the 1958 Topps Baseball set is a special one, including the fact it’s even more colorful than the 1957 set, which had the first color photographs on a Topps set. While the 1958 set used color photographs again, it was the ultra-colorful background of the up-close headshots that really make this set stand out. This set had nine different background colors, including black, blue, light blue, green, light green, orange, pink, red, or yellow, framed inside a white border.
While some earlier sets have close-up images (like 1955 and 1956), those were not photographs, and the 1957 set usually showed body shots. Getting up close images of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and the like made this an amazing set for young collectors opening up packs. Imagine their wonder, as they look at cards which made their favorite players look more like comic book superheroes than ballplayers!
Also in 1958 Topps Baseball, we got to see SPORT Magazine All-Stars for the first time! Topps didn’t denote All-Stars in any set before this one, and they got a bonus of having Stan Musial on the checklist for the first time in his 18-year career up to that point. “Stan the Man” joined the majors in 1941, but his rookie cards didn’t come out until the 1948 Bowman and 1949 Leaf sets. Musial had cards in the 1952 and 1953 Bowman sets, but he chose not to be on any cards for a few years after that.
Since Topps didn’t sign Musial until 1968, they were only able to print him on an All-Star card, which was from the final series of the set.
This was the first year for All-Star cards, as we mentioned, and 21 different Sport Magazine All-Star cards were produced in this set. It’s really one of the first times a card collector could own TWO different cards of the same player in the same set!
Rather than creating cards of players who made the All-Star team that year, which is something we see now, as All-Star cards come in the Topps Update run, Topps had SPORT Magazine choose their all-stars.
While SPORT’s editors picked 12 of the 18 players who started in that 1958 MLB All-Star Game, which is pretty good, they did miss on ’58 All-Star Bill Mazeroski. They get a pass, however, since Maz’s rookie card came just one year earlier. Interestingly, 1958 was also the greatest season of Mazeroski’s career.
Coming into 1958, the Braves were the reigning World Series champions, but it was the Yankees who took them down in the 1958 World Series.
Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron were the respective MVPs heading into 1958, but it would be Boston’s Jackie Jensen and Chicago’s Ernie Banks who would win that hardware in 1958. Jensen
Speaking of the Yankees, stick around to the end of this article when we share a great piece of Roger Maris trivia!
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For our card value rankings, we’re only talking about PSA 5 slabs of these cards, and we used the values from PSA’s online price guide. The card images are provided by BuySportsCards.com. We’re not going to share weird, random cards that are expensive because of a variation. The prices listed are from April, 2025.
While his 1957 card showed Mantle in full swing, this card was the first Topps color photo with a closer, more intimate look at The Mick, still a young buck at just 26 years old. He was already a six-time All-Star by the time!
View 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle Cards on eBay!
How cool would it be to own this card with two of the greatest mashers of all time, facing off against each other, with great smiles – even though, Mickey is looking at the wrong camera. It’s like when you take a family picture and you are looking at a card shop off in the distance while your family looks at the camera.
View 1958 Topps World Series Batting Foes Cards on eBay!
Topps just can’t get things right with Hank Aaron cards in the ‘50s! His 1958 card had two variants – white lettering and yellow lettering for his name. This would be the third of three straight years that something either interesting on an error basis or a variant would appear on Hank Aaron’s card.
Aaron’s Yellow-Letter variation is one of about four dozen yellow-name cards available for collectors, including Roberto Clemente and Al Kaline. The yellow-letter Aaron card is a little cheaper than the white-letter cards.
View 1958 Topps Hank Aaron Cards on eBay!
This is the third and final time Teddy Ballgame would lead off the set as the first card on the checklist. It was also his final Topps card as a player, since he’d sign with Fleer in 1959, and retire after the 1960 MLB season. He did have three Topps manager cards from his time running the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers from 1969-72.
That means this set is the only set with Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Stan Musial on the checklist!
View 1958 Topps Ted Williams Rookie Cards on eBay!
It’s interesting to note that the most famous and sought-after rookie card in this set is of a player who will likely never make the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Maris obviously gained his fame from eclipsing Babe Ruth’s 60-HR record when Maris hit 61 homers for the New York Yankees in 1961. While Maris played in the majors for 12 seasons, that was the only year Maris hit over 40 home runs. Sadly, Yankees fans at the time – and even to this day, most likely – wished it was The Mick that beat The Babe, not The Maris.
I would like to point out, though, for those Maris haters, that it was Maris who won the 1960 American League MVP, not Mantle, and Maris would obviously win it again in 1961. Mantle was second in MVP voting in both of those years. Mantle had the better career, but it was Maris would led the Yankees statistically in those two seasons. (Mantle won MVP in 1962!)
View 1958 Topps Roger Maris Cards on eBay!
From 1957 to 1969, Topps called the greatest Latino hitter of the 20th century, “Bob Clemente,” including this 1958 version. In 1970, I’m guessing someone relayed to Topps that the hitter preferred, “Roberto,” and the rest is history.
While Hank Aaron’s card had both white and yellow name variations, Clemente’s background was already yellow. So, it was actually the “Pittsburgh Pirates” team name that came in either white or yellow lettering, which we call “Team Color Match,” in the 21st century!
View 1958 Topps Bob Clemente Cards on eBay!
Any fan of the San Francisco Giants will want to have this specific card in their collection, not just because it’s a Willie Mays card, but because it’s his first card with the San Francisco Giants! He would continue to wear a “SF” on his hat all the way until 1973, when he returned to New York City.
View 1958 Topps Willie Mays Cards on eBay!
With an 11-11 season in 40 starts and less than 1K per inning pitched in 1958, the 22-year-old Koufax remained “just another guy” for a couple more seasons.
View 1958 Topps Sandy Koufax Cards on eBay!
It’s true that the Mickey Mantle All-Star cards (along with the Stan Musial All-Star cards) were multi-printed, making them less scarce/valuable, but it’s also true that this really is a work of art.
This 1958 Mantle All-Star card is also known for being the card legendary broadcaster Bob Costas famously carried in his wallet for years.
When asked why his Mantle survived not being thrown out like the rest of the cards from his childhood collection, Costas said, “It seemed like a sacrilege to throw it away, so I kept it in with my credit cards in my wallet.”
View 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle All-Star Cards on eBay!
“It seemed like a sacrilege to throw it away, so I kept [his 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle All-Star card] in with my credit cards in my wallet.” – Bob Costas
Considering Mays was named to 24 different All-Star teams, it’s worth noting this might just be his most beautiful All-Star card. The 1958 Topps Baseball National League All-Star cards had blue backgrounds and the American League had red backgrounds, so if you’re able to get a Mantle and a Mays card in your card display – that would look pretty amazing!
View 1958 Topps Willie Mays All-Star Cards on eBay!
Something I found really interesting about Maris and his record-breaking 1961 season in which he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, was that he was never intentionally walked that year. No doubt, his accomplishment was still amazing, but both Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, who beat his record, never had Mickey Mantle batting after them. Aaron Judge, who did beat Maris’ AL record a few years ago, did have Giancarlo Stanton behind him, which should count for something.
This is a series we’ve created where we look at the most valuable baseball cards from different years in Topps Baseball history! Here are the years we’ve already covered:
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