1961 Topps #74 Joe Pignatano
About Joe Pignatano
The card catches Pignatano at the end of his Los Angeles Dodgers run, coming off a 1960 season as the club's third-string catcher behind John Roseboro: 58 games, 90 at-bats, a .233 average with two home runs. He had been Roseboro's regular backup in 1958 and 1959, so 1960 was a step down the depth chart. The Dodger uniform was out of date almost as soon as the set appeared - Los Angeles sold him to the Kansas City Athletics in January 1961, with Norm Sherry emerging as Sandy Koufax's preferred catcher and the club wanting cash to finish Dodger Stadium. Card No. 74 is a first-series card.
Joe Pignatano was a Brooklyn-born catcher who signed with his hometown Dodgers after a 1948 tryout and spent almost seven years in their farm system, interrupted by two years of military service, before reaching Brooklyn in April 1957. That September he caught the last five innings of the final game played at Ebbets Field. Across six big-league seasons he backed up John Roseboro in Los Angeles, then finished with the Kansas City Athletics, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. His signature moment came in the 1959 National League playoff against Milwaukee, when his 12th-inning single kept the pennant-winning rally alive, and he earned a ring that fall as the Dodgers beat the White Sox in six games. He batted .234 with 161 hits, 16 home runs and 62 runs batted in over 307 games, and remains the only major leaguer to end his career by hitting into a triple play. He then coached 20 straight seasons - for the Senators under Gil Hodges, the Mets from 1968 through 1981 and the Braves from 1982 through 1984 - working the bullpen for the 1969 champion Mets, where he raised a vegetable garden from a wild tomato plant he found out there.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 365 | 0 | 32 | 173 | 118 | 21 | 10 | 11 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 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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Frequently asked questions
What is the 1961 Topps #74 card?
It is card #74 of the 587-card 1961 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Pignatano of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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.