1963 Topps #225 Joe Jay
About Joe Jay
Jay did it again in 1962, going 21-14 with a 3.76 ERA, 16 complete games and a career-high 273 innings, and hitting the only two home runs of his life, both in May. This time 21 wins did not lead anything: Don Drysdale won 25 and teammate Bob Purkey 23, which is why card 7, the first-series leaders card, lists Jay fourth, behind Drysdale, Jack Sanford and Purkey and ahead of Art Mahaffey and Billy O'Dell. Card 225 in the third series is his own Cincinnati issue. The Reds won 98 games that summer and still finished third, three and a half back of San Francisco.
Joseph Richard Jay, born August 15, 1935, in Middletown, Connecticut, was a switch-hitting right-hander who pitched 13 seasons in the majors between 1953 and 1966 for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. Milwaukee signed him out of high school in 1953 for a $40,000 bonus, making him one of the original bonus babies and the first Little League alumnus to reach the big leagues; the bonus rule of the day pinned him to a major league roster before he had learned his trade in the minors. Seven uneven Braves seasons followed. After the 1960 campaign Milwaukee sent Jay and Juan Pizarro to Cincinnati for shortstop Roy McMillan, and the move remade him: 21 wins in 1961, 21 more in 1962, and a pennant for the Reds. He finished 99-91 with a 3.77 ERA and 999 strikeouts over 1,546 1/3 innings. Cincinnati elected him to the Reds Hall of Fame, a team honor, in July 2008. He died September 27, 2024, in Lutz, Florida, at 89.
Sources: SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 225 | 0 | 11 | 130 | 60 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| SGC | 18 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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
More Joe Jay in this set: #7 League Leaders
Team card: #63 Cincinnati Reds
More Cincinnati Reds cards:
- #1 1962 National League Batting Leaders
- #3 1962 National League Home Run Leaders
- #5 1962 National League E.R.A. Leaders
- #7 1962 National League Pitching Leaders
- #21 Marty Keough
- #29 1963 Rookie Stars
- #37 Jerry Lynch
- #70 Jim O'Toole
- #90 Gordy Coleman
- #116 Jim Brosnan
- #133 Gene Freese
- #158 1963 Rookie Stars
- #178 Johnny Edwards
- #194 Joe Nuxhall
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1963 Topps #225 card?
It is card #225 of the 576-card 1963 Topps Baseball set, picturing Joe Jay of the Cincinnati Reds.
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.