1961 Topps #233 Joe Jay
About Joe Jay
Card 233 in the third series carries Jay's new Cincinnati address, and it lands at exactly the right moment. He had come over from Milwaukee that winter alongside Juan Pizarro in the deal that sent shortstop Roy McMillan the other way, arriving with a 9-8 record and only 11 starts to show for 1960. The Reds handed him a rotation spot and got a different pitcher back: all 34 of his 1961 appearances were starts, and he finished 21-10 with a 3.53 ERA, 14 complete games, 157 strikeouts and 247 1/3 innings, tying for the National League lead in both wins and shutouts as Cincinnati took its first pennant since 1940.
Joseph Richard Jay, born August 15, 1935, in Middletown, Connecticut, was a switch-hitting right-hander who pitched 13 seasons in the majors between 1953 and 1966 for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee signed him out of high school in 1953 for a $40,000 bonus, making him one of the original bonus babies and the first Little League alumnus to reach the big leagues; the bonus rule of the day pinned him to a major league roster before he had learned his trade in the minors. Seven uneven Braves seasons followed. After the 1960 campaign Milwaukee sent Jay and Juan Pizarro to Cincinnati for shortstop Roy McMillan, and the move remade him: 21 wins in 1961, 21 more in 1962, and a pennant for the Reds. He finished 99-91 with a 3.77 ERA and 999 strikeouts over 1,546 1/3 innings. Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame, a team honor, in July 2008. He died September 27, 2024, in Lutz, Florida, at 89.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac (1) · Baseball Almanac (2)
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 360 | 4 | 44 | 205 | 74 | 15 | 7 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-09-04. PSA counts are straight grades only; PSA half grades (PSA 1.5 among them) and qualified slabs are not included. SGC half grades fold down (8.5→8). Slabs of the two cards printed #463 are joined by description, never by number alone.
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Related cards
Team card: #249 Cincinnati Reds Team
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- #76 Harry Anderson
- #97 Jerry Lynch
- #110 Vada Pinson
- #135 Fred Hutchinson
- #162 Jay Hook
- #166 Danny Kravitz
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- #194 Gordy Coleman
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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #233 card?
It is card #233 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Jay of the Cincinnati Reds.
How many cards are in the 1961 Topps Baseball set?
587 cards, tracked as 596 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 589, but #426, #587 and #588 were never issued and two different cards were printed #463 - Jack Fisher and the Milwaukee Braves Team card, catalogued 463b - and eight cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, 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 2026-10-05.