1962 Topps #90 Jim Piersall
About Jim Piersall
Both 1962 Topps cards trace back to a career year: a .322 average in 121 games for Cleveland in 1961, the season of his second Gold Glove. Series-1 card #51, '1961 AL Batting Leaders,' stacks him fourth behind Norm Cash (.361), Elston Howard (.348) and Al Kaline (.324), though the official batting race placed him third. Solo card #90, also series 1, already lists him with the Washington Senators, who landed him from Cleveland on October 5, 1961 for Dick Donovan, Gene Green and Jim Mahoney.
James Anthony Piersall, born November 14, 1929 in Waterbury, Connecticut, played 17 major-league seasons (1950, 1952-1967) as an outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, New York Mets and Los Angeles/California Angels. Prized for his center-field glove, he made two All-Star teams (1954, 1956), won Gold Gloves in 1958 and 1961, and finished at .272 with 104 home runs and 591 RBI in 1,734 games. In 1952, the rookie season that collapsed into a publicized breakdown, he was calling himself the 'Waterbury Wizard' after his hometown; that summer ended at Westborough State Hospital with electroshock treatment. His recovery became the 1955 memoir Fear Strikes Out, written with Al Hirshberg, and the 1957 film starring Anthony Perkins. The showmanship never stopped: he batted in a Beatles wig and played air guitar on his bat. After retiring in 1967 he broadcast for decades, most famously beside Harry Caray on Chicago White Sox games beginning in 1977. The Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame inducted him in September 2010. He died June 3, 2017 in Wheaton, Illinois.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 326 | 0 | 4 | 109 | 125 | 64 | 14 | 10 | 0 |
| SGC | 22 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 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
More Jim Piersall in this set: #51 League Leaders
Team card: #206 Washington Senators Team
More Washington Senators cards:
- #27 Chuck Cottier
- #42 Jim King
- #79 Ed Hobaugh
- #125 Gene Woodling
- #152 Mickey Vernon
- #207 Pete Burnside
- #228 Dale Long
- #262 Bob Schmidt
- #271 Ray Rippelmeyer
- #296 Ken Hamlin
- #324 Joe McClain
- #347 Chuck Hinton
- #378 Bennie Daniels
- #411 Danny O'Connell
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #90 card?
It is card #90 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Piersall of the Washington Senators.
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.