1962 Topps #80 Vada Pinson
About Vada Pinson
The 1962 pair, both first-series cards, looks back at the best year Pinson ever had: a .343 average in 1961, a league-high 208 hits, 87 RBI, his only Gold Glove, and third place in the MVP voting behind Frank Robinson and Orlando Cepeda. Roberto Clemente took the batting title by eight points. Card #52 stacks the four leading National League hitters, Clemente over Pinson, Ken Boyer and Wally Moon; #80 is his own card. The pennant brought his only World Series, two hits in 22 at-bats against the Yankees.
Vada Pinson was born in Memphis and raised in Oakland, where he played trumpet in the McClymonds High School band and seriously weighed music as a career until coach George Powles steered him toward baseball. The same school produced Frank Robinson, Curt Flood and Bill Russell. Cincinnati signed Pinson for a $4,000 bonus before his eighteenth birthday, and two minor league seasons later he was the club's center fielder at nineteen. A left-handed hitter who paired speed with power, he became Robinson's roommate and running mate in a lefty-righty duo that tormented National League pitching. Pinson was a four-time All-Star and a Gold Glove center fielder who led NL outfielders in putouts three straight years, and he reached 200 hits four times, batting over .300 in each of those seasons. He is one of the few players with at least 250 home runs and 300 stolen bases, and he held the Reds' career hits record until Pete Rose passed him. Eighteen seasons with Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cleveland, California and Kansas City left him 2,757 hits, 485 doubles, 256 home runs and a .286 average. The Reds elected him to their own Hall of Fame in 1977, and he coached for four clubs before a stroke killed him in 1995 at 57.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 555 | 1 | 16 | 177 | 205 | 82 | 39 | 35 | 0 |
| SGC | 61 | 0 | 2 | 19 | 15 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 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 Vada Pinson in this set: #52 League Leaders
Team card: #465 Cincinnati Reds Team
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #2 Jim Brosnan
- #16 Darrell Johnson
- #41 Cliff Cook
- #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
- #263 The Right Pitch
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1962 Topps #80 card?
It is card #80 of the 600-card 1962 Topps Baseball set, picturing Vada Pinson 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.