1963 Topps #101 Joe Gibbon
About Joe Gibbon
Gibbon's card #101 opens the 1963 Topps first series after the worst kind of follow-up. Arm trouble wrecked his 1962: 19 games, eight starts, a 3-4 record and just 57 innings, barely a quarter of the 195 1/3 he had thrown the year before. Pittsburgh even sent him out for three games with Kinston of the Class B Carolina League, the only minor-league work of his big-league years. The Pirates kept him on the staff regardless, and the card catches a 27-year-old left-hander with plenty to prove and innings to win back.
Joseph Charles Gibbon (1935-2019), a 6-foot-4 left-hander from Hickory, Mississippi, was a two-sport star at Ole Miss, an All-America basketball forward who averaged 30 points a game as a senior and was drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1957 before choosing baseball. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates that year, led the International League with 152 strikeouts for Triple-A Columbus in 1959, and debuted on April 17, 1960, winning a World Series ring as a rookie. His best season came in 1961: 13-10 with a 3.32 ERA in 29 starts. On December 1, 1965, Pittsburgh sent him and Ozzie Virgil to San Francisco for Matty Alou, and manager Herman Franks turned him into a bullpen man; a June 1969 trade for Ron Kline returned him to Pittsburgh for two more seasons. Over 13 seasons with the Pirates, Giants, Reds and Astros he went 61-65 with a 3.52 ERA, 743 strikeouts and 32 saves. Danny Murtaugh hung the ironic nickname "Gabby" on the quiet Mississippian. Gibbon later coached baseball at Clarke College in Newton, Mississippi, and was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1979.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 241 | 0 | 0 | 79 | 111 | 32 | 12 | 7 | 0 |
| SGC | 13 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 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.
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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
- #122 Julio Gotay
- #159 Jim Pagliaroni
- #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 #101 card?
It is card #101 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Gibbon 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.