1962 Topps #487 Jerry Lynch


About Jerry Lynch
Lynch turns up at #487 in the sixth series of 1962 Topps, still a Red and fresh off his career year. He held out that spring and signed only late, for a reported $23,500 that was then a striking figure for a man used mostly off the bench, then drove his family down to Tampa. With Wally Post slumping he drew the Opening Day start in left field. He wound up in 114 games, batting .281 with 12 home runs and 57 RBI, and 10 of those homers came in games he started. It was his last full season in Cincinnati.
Gerald Thomas Lynch was born July 17, 1929, in Bay City, Michigan, though his baseball cards and the encyclopedias of the day printed 1930. He played 13 major league seasons from 1954 to 1966, opening with the Pittsburgh Pirates after a Rule 5 draft pick out of the Yankees farm system, moving to Cincinnati the same way in December 1956, and returning to Pittsburgh in a May 1963 trade that sent outfielder Bob Skinner to the Reds. A left-handed hitter with limited range in the outfield, he turned a crowded depth chart into a specialty and became one of the most feared pinch hitters of his era. His 18 pinch-hit home runs were a major league record when he retired, stood until 1984, and remain the National League mark. Over 1,184 games he batted .277 with 798 hits, 115 home runs and 470 RBI. His best year was 1961, when he hit .315, slugged .624, and helped the Reds take their first National League pennant in 21 years. Pirates broadcaster Jim Woods called him the Allison Park Sweeper for his suburban Pittsburgh address and his machine-like work at the plate. He was elected to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, the club's team honor, in 1988, and died March 31, 2012, in Austell, Georgia.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 243 | 1 | 13 | 88 | 95 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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: #465 Cincinnati Reds Team
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
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- #16 Darrell Johnson
- #41 Cliff Cook
- #80 Vada Pinson
- #103 Don Blasingame
- #120 Bob Purkey
- #148 Wally Post
- #151 Johnny Klippstein
- #171 Dave Sisler
- #172 Fred Hutchinson
- #193 Eddie Kasko
- #205 Gene Freese
- #233 World Series Game #2 - Jay Ties It Up
- #258 Marty Keough
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #487 card?
It is card #487 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jerry Lynch of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.