1962 Topps #91 J.C. Martin
About J.C. Martin
Chicago's answer to Martin's bat was a new position. General manager Ed Short suggested catching and Lopez agreed, so Martin spent three months of 1962 at Savannah in the South Atlantic League learning it from Les Moss, a former White Sox catcher. He hit .328 there with 8 home runs and 52 RBIs, fielded .986, and set a league record with 32 passed balls. Back with the Sox, he made his first big-league start behind the plate on September 10 at Comiskey Park, calling a complete game as Ray Herbert beat Kansas City 4-3, and finished 2-for-26 in 18 games. Card #91 is a first-series card; it was on shelves while he was away learning the job.
Joseph Clifton Martin went by his initials because both of his grandparents were named Joseph, and the Southern habit of using initials stuck. Born December 13, 1936, in Axton, Virginia, he signed with the Chicago White Sox as a first baseman before the 1956 season and debuted on September 10, 1959, too late in the year to be eligible for that fall's World Series. Short on power for a corner infielder, he went back to the minors in 1962 to learn catching under Les Moss, and from 1963 he was Chicago's regular receiver, a left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower whose working life was spent chasing the knuckleballs of Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. He caught Joe Horlen's no-hitter in 1967 and was traded to the New York Mets that November, where he backed up Jerry Grote and wound up at the center of a disputed bunt play in the World Series the Mets won in 1969. Three seasons with the Chicago Cubs closed out fourteen years, 908 games and a .222 average. He coached for the Cubs in 1974 and worked White Sox telecasts alongside Harry Caray in 1975.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 252 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 101 | 70 | 25 | 15 | 0 |
| SGC | 16 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Snapshot 2026-09-24. Half-grades fold down (8.5→8), and PSA's qualified grades are counted separately from the straight-grade rows shown here. Slabs of the three cards printed #139 are joined by description, never by number alone. PSA registers the green tints as a separate set; a tint's population is listed under that state of the card it belongs to.
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Related cards
Team card: #113 Chicago White Sox Team
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- #73 Nellie Fox
- #116 Herb Score
- #161 Frank Baumann
- #178 Camilo Carreon
- #195 Joe Cunningham
- #214 Dom Zanni
- #255 Juan Pizarro
- #283 Charlie Smith
- #286 Al Lopez
- #325 Luis Aparicio
- #341 Mike Hershberger
- #363 Bob Roselli
- #385 Early Wynn
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #91 card?
It is card #91 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing J.C. Martin of the Chicago White Sox.
How many cards are in the 1962 Topps Baseball set?
600 cards, tracked as 708 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 598 with no gaps, but three different cards were printed #139 - two Hal Reniff poses, catalogued 139a and 139b, and the Babe Hits 60 Babe Ruth Special, 139c - so 598 numbers make 600 cards; 93 cards carry catalogued print variations, the series-2 green tints among them, that the master set counts separately.
Sources: Baseball Almanac, Trading Card Database, PSA CardFacts, Cardboard Connection, BaseballCardPedia, 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 2026-10-03.