1963 Topps #170 Joe Adcock
About Joe Adcock
Card #170 in the second series is the jarring one for Braves fans: it lists Adcock with the Cleveland Indians after ten seasons in Milwaukee. His 1962 was played on a bad right knee that held him to 112 starts at first base, only 45 of them completed, yet he still hit 29 home runs and slugged over .500 for a seventh straight year, including a two-homer game at Connie Mack Stadium on July 21. Lou Perini sold the fifth-place club that November, and inside of two weeks Adcock was shipped to Cleveland in a multi-player deal.
Joseph Wilbur Adcock was born October 30, 1927, in Coushatta, Louisiana, and led the Southeastern Conference in scoring for the LSU basketball team before a walk-on tryout there turned him into a slugging first baseman. Signed by Cincinnati in 1947, he debuted with the Reds in 1950 but was blocked at first base by Ted Kluszewski and was traded to the Braves in February 1953, weeks before the franchise moved from Boston to Milwaukee. Nicknamed "Billy Joe" after a Vanderbilt basketball player and popularized by Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, Adcock became one of the era's most feared long-ball hitters, highlighted by a four-home-run, 18-total-base game against Brooklyn at Ebbets Field on July 31, 1954. He anchored Milwaukee's lineup alongside Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews, helped the Braves win the 1957 World Series, and made his only All-Star team in 1960. Injuries and platooning cost him at-bats, yet he finished with 336 home runs, 1,122 RBIs and a .277 average over 17 seasons with the Reds, Braves, Indians and Angels, retiring with the third-highest career fielding percentage (.994) among first basemen. A 1975 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee and a 2022 Braves Hall of Fame selection, he retired to his Coushatta ranch and died there on May 3, 1999.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 304 | 1 | 22 | 143 | 96 | 25 | 10 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 17 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 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.
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Related cards
Team card: #451 Cleveland Indians
More Cleveland Indians cards:
- #8 1962 American League Pitching Leaders
- #14 Pedro Ramos
- #36 Jerry Kindall
- #48 Birdie Tebbetts
- #72 Johnny Romano
- #103 Chuck Essegian
- #129 Gary Bell
- #152 Ron Nischwitz
- #187 Willie Kirkland
- #211 Fred Whitfield
- #227 Jim Grant
- #228 1963 Rookie Stars
- #248 Tito Francona
- #266 Bob Allen
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #170 card?
It is card #170 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Adcock of the Cleveland Indians.
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.