1963 Topps #159 Jim Pagliaroni
About Jim Pagliaroni
This second-series card already pictures Pagliaroni in a Pittsburgh uniform: on November 20, 1962 the Red Sox traded him and pitcher Don Schwall to the Pirates for pitcher Jack Lamabe and first baseman Dick Stuart. The Boston season behind the card was a solid one. He played 90 games, again more than any other Red Sox catcher, and hit .258 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI. He threw out Luis Aparicio three times in a single season, only the second catcher to manage it, and on August 1, 1962 he caught Bill Monbouquette's 1-0 no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox and scored the game's only run himself.
James Vincent Pagliaroni was born December 8, 1937, in Dearborn, Michigan, and grew up in Long Beach, California, where he starred at Woodrow Wilson High School. The Boston Red Sox signed him in 1955 as an amateur free agent for a reported $85,000 bonus paid out over ten years, and the bonus rules of the day put him straight onto the major-league roster; he debuted at Fenway Park on August 13, 1955, at age seventeen. Army service from 1956 to 1958 and three minor-league seasons followed before he returned to Boston for good in August 1960. A right-handed hitter listed at six-foot-four and 210 pounds, Pagliaroni caught eleven big-league seasons for the Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and Seattle Pilots, batting .252 with 90 home runs and 326 RBI in 849 games and fielding .991 behind the plate. He was on the receiving end of two celebrated games, Bill Monbouquette's 1962 no-hitter and Catfish Hunter's 1968 perfect game, and his teammates elected him players' union representative with both the Pirates and the Athletics. He died of cancer on April 3, 2010, in Grass Valley, California.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 246 | 0 | 5 | 105 | 89 | 31 | 10 | 6 | 0 |
| SGC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #151 Pittsburgh Pirates
More Pittsburgh Pirates cards:
- #18 Buc Blasters
- #34 Dick Schofield
- #55 Bill Virdon
- #87 Bob Veale
- #101 Joe Gibbon
- #122 Julio Gotay
- #169 1963 Rookie Stars
- #184 Vern Law
- #215 Bob Skinner
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #239 Harvey Haddix
- #259 Johnny Logan
- #281 Tom Sturdivant
- #299 1963 Rookie Stars
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #159 card?
It is card #159 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Jim Pagliaroni of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
How many cards are in the 1963 Topps Baseball set?
576 cards, tracked as 583 collectible states. The numbers run from 1 to 576 with no gaps and no number used twice, and seven cards carry a catalogued print variation - three checklists, the two Rookie Stars cards also printed with a "1962" heading, and the #341 Jack Baldschun and #454 Art Fowler print states - that the master set counts separately.
Sources: 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.