1962 Topps #255 Juan Pizarro
The back credits him with time in Cincinnati. The Reds held his contract only in passing, in the three-way trade of December 15, 1960, and he never appeared in a game for them.
Uncorrected error: The back says he played for the Reds - he never did
About Juan Pizarro
Two cards this year, and each carries a printing quirk. Number 59 salutes the 1961 American League strikeout leaders and stands him beside Camilo Pascual, Whitey Ford and Jim Bunning, but the front spells the name Pizzaro. Number 255, his own third-series card, has a back that credits him with time in Cincinnati; the Reds owned his contract only long enough for the paperwork to clear, and he never threw a pitch for them. He made 32 starts that summer.
Juan Roman Pizarro Cordova, a hard-throwing left-hander born February 7, 1937, in Santurce, Puerto Rico, signed with the Milwaukee Braves in February 1956 and reached the majors in May 1957 at twenty years old. He pitched in the World Series that fall for a Milwaukee club that beat the Yankees, but he never held a steady place on a deep Braves staff. In December 1960 Milwaukee shipped him to Cincinnati, which passed him straight along to the Chicago White Sox, and in Chicago he finally arrived: an American League All-Star in 1963 and again in 1964, and the ace of a rotation that finished one game behind New York in 1964. A torn tendon in his pitching shoulder wrecked 1965, and from 1966 on he worked mainly in relief, closing out an 18-season, eight-team career in 1974. Nicknamed Terin as a boy, after neighborhood kids decided he looked like the hero of the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, he was also one of the finest pitchers the Puerto Rican Winter League has ever had and one of the first men chosen for the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 2021.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 206 | 0 | 8 | 86 | 82 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 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
More Juan Pizarro in this set: #59 League Leaders
Team card: #113 Chicago White Sox Team
More Chicago White Sox cards:
- #8 Ray Herbert
- #73 Nellie Fox
- #91 J.C. Martin
- #116 Herb Score
- #161 Frank Baumann
- #178 Camilo Carreon
- #195 Joe Cunningham
- #214 Dom Zanni
- #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 #255 card?
It is card #255 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Juan Pizarro of the Chicago White Sox.
Does 1962 Topps #255 have an error?
The back says he played for the Reds - he never did. It was never corrected, so there is no variation to chase - every copy of #255 reads the same way.
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.