1958 Topps #50 Billy Pierce
About Billy Pierce
Two versions of card #50 in the first series of 1958 Topps show Billy Pierce with the Chicago White Sox: the common white-letter card and a Yellow Team variation with the team name printed in yellow. Pierce had gone 20-12 with a 3.26 ERA in 1957, led the American League in wins, and was named The Sporting News AL Pitcher of the Year.
Walter William Pierce was born April 2, 1927, in Detroit and grew up in Highland Park, where he did not play organized ball until he was 15 and took the mound only after his sandlot team's pitcher left for a club with better uniforms. Six shutouts as a high school junior earned him the nickname Mr. Zero, and his hometown Tigers signed him for a $15,000 bonus; he debuted in June 1945, weeks after turning 18. Worried about his wildness, Detroit traded him to the White Sox in November 1948 for catcher Aaron Robinson and $10,000, a deal historians rank among the most one-sided ever made. In Chicago the slightly built left-hander became the American League's best southpaw: seven All-Star selections, the 1953 strikeout title, a league-leading 1.97 ERA in 1955 that was the only mark under 2.00 by a qualifier between 1947 and 1962, 20 wins in 1956 and again in 1957, and a near-perfect game against Washington on June 27, 1958. Three seasons in San Francisco closed out a career of 211 wins and a 3.27 ERA. The White Sox retired his No. 19 in 1987 and unveiled a statue of him in 2007. He died July 31, 2015.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball Almanac · Retrosheet · BaseballCardPedia
Variations & how to tell them apart
Yellow Team (YT) #50
Fourteen Series 1/early-2 cards exist with the team/city name printed in yellow instead of white. The white version is the common counterpart; yellow variants run roughly 2-2.5x scarcer.
- #50 — base card: the lettering is printed in WHITE — the base, more common version. (this page)
- #50B — Yellow Team: the team/city name is printed in YELLOW — the scarcer version, roughly 2-2.5x tougher than white per PSA populations. — see the card page
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 285 | 0 | 11 | 102 | 94 | 43 | 24 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 38 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-07-09. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8). PSA counts are straight-graded (the +/Q qualifier rows are excluded).
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Related cards
More Billy Pierce in this set: #50B Yellow Team
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #11 Jim Rivera
- #11B Jim Rivera (Yellow Team)
- #26 Ron H. Jackson
- #50B Billy Pierce (Yellow Team)
- #56 Bill Fischer
- #85 Luis Aparicio
- #85B Luis Aparicio (Yellow Team)
- #100 Early Wynn
- #100B Early Wynn (Yellow Team)
- #108 Jim Landis
- #108B Jim Landis (Yellow Team)
- #129 Jim Derrington
- #138 Earl Torgeson
- #153 Les Moss
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1958 Topps Billy Pierce card?
It is card #50 of the 1958 Topps Baseball set - Topps' sixth flagship issue: 494 cards numbered 1-495 (#145 was never issued), with die-cut player photos on solid-color backgrounds and the first team logos on Topps fronts. It pictures Billy Pierce, Chicago White Sox.
Does the 1958 Topps Billy Pierce #50 have a yellow variation?
Yes - #50 is one of the 33 cards that also exist with yellow lettering. This page covers the common white-letter version; the yellow version runs roughly 2-2.5x scarcer per PSA population data.
How many graded copies of the 1958 Topps Billy Pierce #50 are there?
PSA has graded 285 copies and SGC 38 as of the 2026-07-09 snapshot. Population is a scarcity guide, not a price - high-grade 1958s are notoriously tough because of the set's chronic centering and print-quality issues.
How many cards are in the 1958 Topps set?
494 issued cards, numbered 1-495 - #145 (Ed Bouchee) was pulled before release and never issued, leaving a permanent gap. The PSA master census counts 534 items: the 494 base cards plus 33 yellow-letter variations, 4 numerical checklist-back team cards, the 'Herrer' #433 error, and 2 unnumbered ad cards.
Sources: PSA CardFacts, Beckett, BaseballCardPedia, Baseball-Reference, PSA & SGC population reports, and hobby press-sheet research (Topps Archives, 2026). Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-09-30.